Techniques of spatially explicit individual-based models: construction, simulation, and mean-field analysis

Authored by L Berec

Date Published: 2002

DOI: 10.1016/s0304-3800(01)00463-x

Sponsors: Czech Ministry of Education

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

The main focus of this article is to present and relate four different frameworks in which spatially explicit individual-based models (IBMs) can be defined. These frameworks differ in the way space and time are modeled; each can be treated either discretely or continuously. The emphasis is put on constructing and simulating one of the simplest single-species IBMs in each spatio-temporal framework, discussing some of their technical subtleties, and deriving corresponding mean-field models when the homogeneous mixing conditions are assumed to hold. The four frameworks are more supplements than competitors. Since at almost every step of IBM construction several alternatives are a priori plausible I discuss the most important ones in more details. This article seems to be the first attempt to collect and synthesize information of this kind that is scattered over the literature. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Tags

ecology Dispersal Cellular-automaton Predator-prey dynamics Plant-population dynamics Pattern-formation Interspecific competition Sexual reproduction Neighborhood models Species models