DIMACS Seminar on Math and CS in Biology
Title:
Computational Approaches to Competition in Ecology
Speaker:
- Doug Deutschman
- Cornell and Princeton Universities
Place:
- Princeton Computer Science Department
- Rm 401 (the library)
- Princeton University
Time:
- 1:00 PM
- Tuesday, December 5, 1995
Abstract:
Predicting ecosystem behavior remains a difficult problem in ecology. Early
attempts to develop models of competitive systems relied on simplifying
assumptions about the nature of individual interactions (i.e. all individuals
are identical, the system is well mixed, the dynamics are deterministic) in
order to remain tractable. The advent of fast computers has allowed the use of
complex simulations to explore the consequences of these simplifying
assumptions.
I will present a brief overview of the traditional models of competition in
ecology and explore the insights gained from these models. I will then explore
the consequences of incorporating mechanistic, spatially local interactions in
models of competition among tree species in northeastern forests. Several
different approaches for incorporating the spatial structure into forest models
will be reviewed. The role of small-scale interactions controlling large-scale
community behavior in forests will be explored in detail using SORTIE, a
mechanistic, individual-based simulation model of forests in the northeastern
United States. This work demonstrates that approximate spatial interactions
are adequate to predict forest development, but only if spatial processes are
retained.
Document last modified on November 29, 1995