MetaLandSim

Metapopulations Persistence and Range Expansion Simulation

This package is described in detail in the following publication:

Mestre, F., Cánovas, F., Pita, R., Mira, A., & Beja, P. (2016). An R package for simulating metapopulation dynamics and range expansion under landscape scenarios. Environmental Modelling & Software, 75, 402–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.03.007

MetaLandSim is an R package designed to simulate metapopulation dynamics and range expansion within dynamic landscapes. It provides a virtual environment that enables experimentation and simulation of ecological processes at two scales: landscape and range. By integrating concepts from metapopulation and graph theories, MetaLandSim facilitates the modeling of species persistence and dispersal across heterogeneous and changing habitats.

Features

• Random Landscape Generation: Create random landscape graphs representing habitat patches and their spatial relationships.
• Dynamic Landscape Simulation: Model changes in landscape structure over time, including habitat loss or gain.
• Metapopulation Dynamics: Simulate species occupancy and persistence within dynamic landscapes.
• Range Expansion Modeling: Assess species range expansion scenarios, particularly in response to environmental changes like climate change.
• Connectivity Metrics: Compute various graph-based connectivity metrics to evaluate landscape structure and its influence on species movement.

Installation

MetaLandSim is available on CRAN and can be installed using the following command in R:

install.packages("MetaLandSim")

To install the development version from GitHub:

# Install devtools if not already installed
install.packages("devtools")

# Install MetaLandSim from GitHub
devtools::install_github("FMestre1/MetaLandSim")

Usage

Here's a basic example of how to use MetaLandSim:

# Load the package
library(MetaLandSim)

# Generate a random landscape with 100 patches
landscape <- rland.graph(npatch = 100, areaM = 50, distM = 1000)

# Simulate metapopulation dynamics over 20 time steps
simulation <- iterate.graph(rl = landscape, npatch = 100, nyears = 20)

# Plot the resulting landscape
plot_graph(landscape)

# Compute connectivity metrics
metrics <- metrics.graph(rl = landscape, metric = "NC")  # Number of components

For detailed tutorials and examples, refer to the package vignettes:

• Landscape Occupation Simulation in Dynamic Landscapes
• Model Parametrization
• Range Expansion Simulation

Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available:

• CRAN Package Page
• Reference Manual (PDF)

Citation

If you use MetaLandSim in your research, please cite the following publication:

Mestre, F., Cánovas, F., Pita, R., Mira, A., & Beja, P. (2016). An R package for simulating metapopulation dynamics and range expansion under landscape scenarios. Environmental Modelling & Software, 75, 402–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.03.007

Authors

• Frederico Mestre – GitHub | Website
• Fernando Cánovas
• Ricardo Pita
• António Mira
• Pedro Beja

License

MetaLandSim is licensed under the GPL-2 or GPL-3 license.