Ecological Cellular Automata: A New Approach to Spatio-Temporal Modelling of Interacting Populations

该项目将提供一个广泛而详细的 元胞自动机（CA）模型的研究， 在空间和时间上的生态互动。 CA模型是 基本上是反应扩散模型的离散化版本;它们 与集合种群的斑块占据模型密切相关 动力学 该研究计划将建立模型， 竞争、捕食和捕食者介导的共存。 它将 将通常的CA方法扩展到包括底物异质性 和扰动大小分布。 对这些模型的分析 将包括一系列非空间或平均场属性（状态 和物种频率，平均α和β分布， 种间关联和周转率）以及 明确的空间方法（分形维数，其他缩放 小波分析（wavelet analysis） 模型将被应用于 一系列具体问题，包括 生物和基质异质性，CA模型的对比， 相应的空间平均斑块占有模型，以及 生态学中模式生成所需的条件 可兴奋介质的类似物。 这项研究将提供新的 深入了解许多基本过程的空间关系， 人口和社区生态。

This project will provide a wide-ranging and detailed investigation of cellular automata (CA) models as descriptions of ecological interactions in space and time. CA models are essentially discretized versions of reaction-diffusion models; they are closely related to patch-occupancy models for metapopulation dynamics. The research program will construct models for competition, predation, and predator-mediated coexistence. It will extend the usual CA approaches to include substrate heterogeneity and disturbance size distributions. The analysis of these models will include a range of non-spatial or mean-field properties (state and species frequencies, mean alpha and beta diversities, interspecific associations, and turnover rates) as well as explicitly spatial methods (fractal dimensions, other scaling relationships, and wavelet analysis). The models will be applied to a number of specific problems, including the relationship of biotic and substrate heterogeneity, the contrast of CA models with the corresponding spatially averaged patch-occupancy models, and the conditions required for pattern generation in the ecological analogs of excitable media. This research will provide new insights into spatial relationships of many basic processes in population and community ecology.