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Using HexSim to simulate complex species, landscape, and stressor interactions
Citation:
SCHUMAKER, N. H., A. F. BROOKES, C. Carroll, P. Huber, T. Nogeire, P. Singleton, M. Tuma, C. Wilsey, AND G. Xie. Using HexSim to simulate complex species, landscape, and stressor interactions. Presented at Ecological Society of America, Portland, OR, August 05 - 10, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
The use of simulation models in conservation biology, landscape ecology, and other disciplines is increasing.
Description:
Background / Question / Methods The use of simulation models in conservation biology, landscape ecology, and other disciplines is increasing. Models are essential tools for researchers who, for example, need to forecast future conditions, weigh competing recovery and mitigation strategies, or evaluate the consequences of stressor interactions on one or more populations. On the other hand, model development is often time-consuming, costly, and limited by access to computer programmers. These constraints slow innovation, and they slow scientific progress. This symposium will highlight research advances made possible by recent developments in individual-based population modeling. Speakers in this symposium will, in part, describe work that has been conducted using a particularly flexible model named HexSim. This presentation will introduce the HexSim model, and will provide illustrations of its structure and use drawn from ongoing research. Results / Conclusions Using HexSim, we have developed a diverse range of simulation models that account for multiple species and stressor interactions, weigh possible recovery and reintroduction strategies, examine disease spread in an individual-based and spatially-explicit context, track changes in population genotypes over large spatial and temporal scales, and quantify landscape connectivity. Results from these studies will be used to illustrate how simulations models that are spatially-explicit, individual-based, and trait-based are advancing research in conservation biology, landscape ecology, and other disciplines.