EMERGENT FEATURES IN A GENERAL FOOD WEB SIMULATION: LOTKA-VOLTERRA, GAUSE'S LAW, AND THE PARADOX OF ENRICHMENT

Authored by Ted Carmichael, Mirsad Hadzikadic

Date Published: 2013-12

DOI: 10.1142/s0219525913500148

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: NetLogo

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Computer simulations of complex food-webs are important tools for deepening our understanding of these systems. Yet most computer models assume, rather than generate, key system-level patterns, or use mathematical modeling approaches that make it difficult to fully account for nonlinear dynamics. In this paper, we present a computer simulation model that addresses these concerns by focusing on assumptions of agent attributes rather than agent outcomes. Our model utilizes the techniques of complex adaptive systems and agent-based modeling so that system level patterns of a marine ecosystem emerge from the interactions of thousands of individual computer agents. This methodology is validated by using this general simulation model to replicate fundamental properties of a marine ecosystem, including: (i) the predator-prey oscillations found in Lotka-Volterra; (ii) the stepped pattern of biomass accrual from resource enrichment; (iii) the Paradox of Enrichment; and (iv) Gause's Law.

Tags

Simulation Agent based model Population dynamics Complex adaptive systems Dynamics Network Structure resilience ecology Gause's law Lotka-Volterra food web individual based model paradox of enrichment stability Exploitation ecosystems Trophic cascades