Ithaca, N.Y.--- Visitors to this week's edition of ScienceOnline will find a unique new feature, Science's first peer-reviewed article written exclusively as a publication for the World Wide Web. Co-authors Douglas Deutschman (San Diego State University), Simon Levin (Princeton University), Catherine Devine (Cornell Theory Center), and Linda Buttel (Cornell Theory Center) present readers with an interactive introduction to and analysis of the workings of SORTIE, a computer model of forest dynamics based on individual-trees.
The paper, "Scaling From Trees to Forests - Analysis of a Complex Simulation Model," can be viewed at http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/deutschman/index.htm.
"The Web site includes scores of still images and a dozen color animations," noted Deutschman. "The 3D results are critical to the readers' understanding the complexity of the model. This is impossible to accomplish in conventional publishing." A built-in feedback feature, moreover, allows visitors to the site to share their thoughts about its success in communicating science.
Deutschman, a theoretical ecologist, is interested in the relationship between a model's complexity and its value as an analytical tool. The team used SORTIE, developed by Steve Pacala (Princeton University), to study the behavior of a model of forest dynamics. SORTIE is an individual-based simulation model of forest dynamics that includes random variation. The behaviors of the trees in the simulations are based on findings from studies done in the Great Mountain Forest (GMF) in northwestern Connecticut.
The model follows each tree in a forest as it competes with its neighbors
for light, calculating the response of each tree thousands of times for
thousands of trees during each time step. Deutschman worked with Theory
Center ecological modeler Linda Buttel to enhance and explore SORTIE, successively
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Contact: Linda Callahan
cal@tc.cornell.edu
607-254-8610
Cornell Theory Center
19-Sep-1997