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HexSim: A flexible simulation model for forecasting wildlife responses to multiple interacting stressors - ESRP Meeting
Citation:
SCHUMAKER, N. H., J. LAWLER, AND A. Brookes. HexSim: A flexible simulation model for forecasting wildlife responses to multiple interacting stressors - ESRP Meeting. Presented at ESRP Meeting, Henderson, NV, October 19 - 21, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
With SERDP funding, we have improved upon a popular life history simulator (PATCH), and indoing so produced a powerful new forecasting tool (HexSim).
Description:
With SERDP funding, we have improved upon a popular life history simulator (PATCH), and indoing so produced a powerful new forecasting tool (HexSim). PATCH, our starting point, was spatially explicit and individual-based, and was useful for evaluating a range of terrestrial life histories, landscapes, and disturbance regimes. But PATCH had significant limitations. It was a single-population females-only model whose individuals were all identical. It had a modern but cumbersome interface, and it could not capture stressor interactions. These limitations compromised the model’s realism and utility. In constructing HexSim from PATCH we have relaxed these and many other constraints; HexSim is a true multi-population and multi-stressor program. In addition, HexSim’s populations are trait-based, which means individuals can have unique and dynamic properties. Traits can be genetic, probabilistic, or experiential in nature, and they ca influence individual vital rates and behaviors. This poster will illustrate the design, features, and use of the new (and freely available) HexSim model.