HR: 1330h
AN: B33E-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Development of a General Modeling Framework for Investigating Complex Interactions among Biological and Physical Ecosystem Dynamics
AU: * Bennett, C
EM: cbennett@eco-metrics.com
AF: Eco-metrics, Inc., 2520 Pine Lake Rd, Tucker, GA United States
AU: Poole, G C
EM: gpoole@eco-metrics.com
AF: Eco-metrics, Inc., 2520 Pine Lake Rd, Tucker, GA United States
AU: Poole, G C
EM: gpoole@eco-metrics.com
AF: Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA United States
AU: Kimball, J S
EM: johnk@ntsg.umt.edu
AF: Flathead Lake Biological Station, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Polson, MT United States
AU: Kimball, J S
EM: johnk@ntsg.umt.edu
AF: Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT United States
AU: Stanford, J A
EM: jack.stanford@umontana.edu
AF: Flathead Lake Biological Station, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Polson, MT United States
AU: O'Daniel, S J
EM: sodaniel@icess.ucsb.edu
AF: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, PO Box 638, Pendleton, OR United States
AU: O'Daniel, S J
EM: sodaniel@icess.ucsb.edu
AF: Department of Geography & ICESS, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA United States
AU: Mertes, L A
EM: leal@geog.ucsb.edu
AF: Department of Geography & ICESS, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA United States
AB: Historically, physical scientists have developed models with highly accurate governing equations, while biologists have excelled at abstraction (the strategic simplification of system complexity). These different modeling paradigms yield biological (e.g. food web) and physical (e.g. hydrologic) models that can be difficult to integrate. Complex biological dynamics may be impossible to represent with governing equations. Conversely, physical processes may be oversimplified in biological models. Using agent-based modeling, a technique applied widely in social sciences and economics, we are developing a general modeling system to integrate accurate representations of physical dynamics such as water and heat flux with abstracted biological processes such as nutrient transformations. The modeling system represents an ecosystem as a complex integrated network of intelligent physical and biological "agents" that store, transform, and trade ecosystem resources (e.g., water, heat, nutrients, carbon) using equations that describe either abstracted concepts and/or physical laws. The modular design of the system allows resource submodels to be developed independently and installed into the simulation architecture. The modeling system provides a useful heuristic tool to support integrated physical and biological research topics, such as the influence of hydrologic dynamics and spatio-temporal physical heterogeneity on trophic (food web) dynamics and/or nutrient cycling.
DE: 1848 Networks
DE: 1890 Wetlands
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly