Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Immigration–Emigration Models
- 3 Logistic Birth–Death Models
- 4 Random Numbers and Visualization
- 5 Two-Species Competition Model
- 6 Programming Projects
- 7 Foraging Model
- 8 Maintenance of Gynodioecy
- 9 Diffusion and Reactions
- 10 Optimal Resource Allocation Schedules
- 11 Epilogue
- References
- Index
11 - Epilogue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Immigration–Emigration Models
- 3 Logistic Birth–Death Models
- 4 Random Numbers and Visualization
- 5 Two-Species Competition Model
- 6 Programming Projects
- 7 Foraging Model
- 8 Maintenance of Gynodioecy
- 9 Diffusion and Reactions
- 10 Optimal Resource Allocation Schedules
- 11 Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
Simulation and mathematical approaches both have their advantages and disadvantages. The clarity of biological assumptions contained in a mathematical formalization is extremely appealing, but mathematical tractability is often constraining. The multitude of simulation assumptions can be frustrating, but the questions we can ask using a simulation approach are almost limitless. It is my firm belief that the interplay between mathematical and simulation models helps advance theoretical ecology and evolution, much like the interplay between theory and empirical studies helps advance the study of ecology and evolution (figure 11.1).
The interplay between the two approaches is especially crucial for simulation work. As I demonstrated in chapter 2, the ordering of a few lines of code can strongly influence the results, at least in a quantitative sense. Precisely because such programming details are important, yet their implications are so difficult to assess and communicate scientifically, simulations alone will never serve as the language for the foundation of theoretical ecology.
Mathematical theorists can begin with a precisely formulated mathematical problem having clearly stated biological assumptions. The starting point is explicit, and there is only one correct solution emanating from it, even though there are many alternative approximations to it. A mathematical approach can therefore proceed without appeal to simulation results; indeed, a simulation introduces stochastic features that the mathematical framework may have disregarded entirely.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Simulating Ecological and Evolutionary Systems in C , pp. 283 - 285Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000