PARENT SESSION
Oral Session # 16: Ecological Modeling I.
Presiding: C Ray
Tuesday, August 5. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Meeting Room 102.
Obgenetica: A flexible, individual based, genetically explicit modelling platform for population simulation.
Scofield, Douglas*,1, 1 d.scofield@umiami.edu, Coral Gables, FL
ABSTRACT- I describe the design and initial capabilities of Obgenetica, a flexible, extensible stochastic simulation platform for the exploration of individual-based evolutionary questions within potentially complex population and environmental models. Individuals are modeled via their genomes, with behaviors and fitnesses dependent upon genotype and encompassing environment. Populations in turn are modeled as regulated collections of individuals occupying environmental patches which transfer individuals via corridors; the specification of environmental structure is extremely flexible and no particular model is implied by Obgenetica's "patch" and "corridor." A script language is used to specify characteristics of individuals, populations, environments and simulation experiments; many published models may be directly specified in the script language. Obgenetica is free, open-source, largely written in Java™, and employs straightforward, biologically-motivated object hierarchies. User extensions of any size are easily accommodated and strongly encouraged.
Key words: population models, genetically-explicit models, simulation, individually-explicit models