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HexSim: a modeling environment for ecology and conservation.
Citation:
Schumaker, N. AND A. Brookes. HexSim: a modeling environment for ecology and conservation. LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY. Springer, New York, NY, 33(2):197-211, (2018).
Impact/Purpose:
Human activities impact plant and animal populations. This paper introduces a new computer modeling application, developed by EPA scientists over the past ten years, that will help researchers and managers better understand such impacts. The simulation toolkit we introduce here will be used to develop quantitative forecasts of future wildlife population trends and their responses to regulatory or management decisions that people make today. We developed this modeling environment to assist EPA regulators who are hoping to anticipate and control for off-target impacts that pesticides have on legally protected wildlife populations. Our paper illustrates why that the tools we have developed will have myriad other applications as well which, in one way or another, will all improve our efforts to understand and protect the environment. This paper contributes to CSS 18.04.
Description:
HexSim is a powerful and flexible new spatially-explicit, individual based modeling environment intended for use in ecology, conservation, genetics, epidemiology, toxicology, and other disciplines. We describe HexSim, illustrate past applications that contributed to our >10 year development effort, and discuss types of future investigations for which we expect the platform to make a significant contribution. The HexSim model, documentation, worked examples, and other materials can be freely obtained from the website www.hexsim.net.
