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Prediction of temperatures in cattle dung for estimating development times of coprophilous organisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

J. N. Matthiessen  and
M. J. Palmer
J. N. Matthiessen
Affiliation:
CSIRO Division of Entomology, Private Bag, P.O. Wembley, Western Australia6014
M. J. Palmer
Affiliation:
CSIRO Division of Mathematics and Statistics, Private Bag, P.O. Wembley, Western Australia6014
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Abstract

In studies in Western Australia, temperatures in air and one- and two-litre pads of cattle dung set out weekly and ranging from one to 20 days old were measured hourly for 438 days over all seasons, producing 1437 day x dung-pad observations. Daily maximum temperatures (and hence thermal accumulation) in cattle dung pads could not be accurately predicted using meteorological data alone. An accurate predictor of daily maximum dung temperature, using multiple regression analysis, required measurement of the following factors: maximum air temperature, hours of sunshine, rainfall, a seasonal factor (the day number derived from a linear interpolation of day number from day 0 at the winter solstice to day 182 at the preceding and following summer solstices) and a dung-pad age-specific intercept term, giving an equation that explained a 91·4% of the variation in maximum dung temperature. Daily maximum temperature in two-litre dung pads was 0·6°C cooler than in one-litre pads. Daily minimum dung temperature equalled minimum air temperature, and daily minimum dung temperatures occurred at 05.00 h and maximum temperatures at 14.00 h for one-litre and 14.30 h for two-litre pads. Thus, thermal summation in a dung pad above any threshold temperature can be computed using a skewed sine curve fitted to daily minimum air temperature and the calculated maximum dung temperature.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 235 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

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