BugHunt Predation
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VERSION
$Id: BugHunt Predation.nlogo 40958 2008-09-04 21:50:13Z tisue $
WHAT IS IT?
This model explores the stability of predator-prey ecosystems. Such a system is called unstable if it tends to result in extinction for one or more species involved. In contrast, a system is stable if it tends to maintain itself over time, despite fluctuations in population sizes.
HOW IT WORKS
There are two main variations to this model.
In the first variation, wolves and sheep wander randomly around the landscape, while the wolves look for sheep to prey on. Each step costs the wolves energy, and they must eat sheep in order to replenish their energy - when they run out of energy they die. To allow the population to continue, each wolf or sheep has a fixed probability of reproducing at each time step. This variation produces interesting population dynamics, but is ultimately unstable.
The second variation includes grass (green) in addition to wolves and sheep. The behavior of the wolves is identical to the first variation, however this time the sheep must eat grass in order to maintain their energy - when they run out of energy they die. Once grass is eaten it will only regrow after a fixed amount of time. This variation is more complex than the first, but it is generally stable.
The construction of this model is described in two papers by Wilensky & Reisman referenced below.
HOW TO USE IT
1. Set the GRASS? switch to TRUE to include grass in the model, or to FALSE to only include wolves (red) and sheep (white).
2. Adjust the slider parameters (see below), or use the default settings.
3. Press the SETUP button.
4. Press the GO button to begin the simulation.
5. Look at the monitors to see the current population sizes
6. Look at the POPULATIONS plot to watch the populations fluctuate over time
Parameters:
INITIAL-NUMBER-SHEEP: The initial size of sheep population
INITIAL-NUMBER-WOLVES: The initial size of wolf population
SHEEP-GAIN-FROM-FOOD: The amount of energy sheep get for every grass patch eaten
WOLF-GAIN-FROM-FOOD: The amount of energy wolves get for every sheep eaten
SHEEP-REPRODUCE: The probability of a sheep reproducing at each time step
WOLF-REPRODUCE: The probability of a wolf reproducing at each time step
GRASS?: Whether or not to include grass in the model
GRASS-REGROWTH-TIME: How long it takes for grass to regrow once it is eaten
SHOW-ENERGY?: Whether or not to show the energy of each animal as a number
Notes:
- one unit of energy is deducted for every step a wolf takes
- when grass is included, one unit of energy is deducted for every step a sheep takes
THINGS TO NOTICE
When grass is not included, watch as the sheep and wolf populations fluctuate. Notice that increases and decreases in the sizes of each population are related. In what way are they related? What eventually happens?
Once grass is added, notice the green line added to the population plot representing fluctuations in the amount of grass. How do the sizes of the three populations appear to relate now? What is the explanation for this?
Why do you suppose that some variations of the model might be stable while others are not?
THINGS TO TRY
Try adjusting the parameters under various settings. How sensitive is the stability of the model to the particular parameters?
Can you find any parameters that generate a stable ecosystem that includes only wolves and sheep?
Try setting GRASS? to TRUE, but setting INITIAL-NUMBER-WOLVES to 0. This gives a stable ecosystem with only sheep and grass. Why might this be stable while the variation with only sheep and wolves is not?
Notice that under stable settings, the populations tend to fluctuate at a predictable pace. Can you find any parameters that will speed this up or slow it down?
Try changing the reproduction rules -- for example, what would happen if reproduction depended on energy rather than being determined by a fixed probability?
EXTENDING THE MODEL
There are a number ways to alter the model so that it will be stable with only wolves and sheep (no grass). Some will require new elements to be coded in or existing behaviors to be changed. Can you develop such a version?
NETLOGO FEATURES
Note the use of breeds to model two different kinds of "turtles": wolves and sheep. Note the use of patches to model grass.
Note use of the ONE-OF agentset reporter to select a random sheep to be eaten by a wolf.
RELATED MODELS
Look at Rabbits Grass Weeds for another model of interacting populations with different rules.
CREDITS AND REFERENCES
Wilensky, U. & Reisman, K. (1999). Connected Science: Learning Biology through Constructing and Testing Computational Theories -- an Embodied Modeling Approach. International Journal of Complex Systems, M. 234, pp. 1 - 12. (This model is a slightly extended version of the model described in the paper.)
Wilensky, U. & Reisman, K. (in press). Thinking like a Wolf, a Sheep or a Firefly: Learning Biology through Constructing and Testing Computational Theories -- an Embodied Modeling Approach. Cognition & Instruction.
To refer to this model in academic publications, please use: Wilensky, U. (1997). NetLogo Wolf Sheep Predation model. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/WolfSheepPredation. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
In other publications, please use: Copyright 1997 Uri Wilensky. All rights reserved. See http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/WolfSheepPredation for terms of use.
Comments and Questions
;; bugs and birds are both breeds of turtle. breed [bugs bug] ;; bugs is its own plural, so we use "bug" as the singular. breed [birds bird] ;; both birds and bugs have energy turtles-own [ energy] patches-own [grass-spot? countdown] globals [stride-length bird-reproduce bugs-reproduce min-energy-of-any-bug max-energy-of-any-bug avg-energy-of-bugs rock-color dirt-color grass-color ] ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Setup procedures ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; to setup ca reset-ticks set stride-length .2 set bird-reproduce 4 set bugs-reproduce 5 set grass-color green set dirt-color brown - 1 set rock-color gray + 4 clear-output setup-grass set-default-shape bugs "bug" create-bugs initial-number-bugs ;; create the bugs, then initialize their variables [ set color blue - 2 set size 1.5 ;; easier to see set label-color yellow + 2.5 set energy random (4 * bugs-gain-from-food) setxy random-xcor random-ycor ] set-default-shape birds "bird" create-birds initial-number-birds ;; create the birds, then initialize their variables [ set color red - 1 set size 1.5 ;; easier to see set label-color yellow + 2.5 set energy random (2 * bird-gain-from-food) setxy random-xcor random-ycor ] display-labels update-plots end to setup-grass ask patches [set grass-spot? false set pcolor rock-color] ask n-of (floor (count patches * %-grass / 100)) patches [ set grass-spot? true ] ;; check GRASS? switch. ;; if it is true, then grass grows and the bugs eat it ;; if it false, then the bugs don't need to eat ask patches [ if grass-spot? [ ifelse random 2 = 0 [set pcolor grass-color] [set pcolor dirt-color set countdown random grass-regrowth-time ];; initialize grass grow clocks randomly ] ] end ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Runtime procedures ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; to go if not any? turtles [ stop ] ask bugs [ if moving-lose-energy? [ set energy energy - 1 ;; deduct energy for bugs only if grass? switch is on ] wander eat-grass death if reproduce? [ reproduce-bugs ] ] ask birds [ if moving-lose-energy? [ set energy energy - 1 ;; deduct energy for bugs only if grass? switch is on ] fd stride-length catch-bugs death if reproduce? [ reproduce-birds ] ] every 0.1 [ display ] ask patches [ grow-grass ] tick update-plots display-labels end to wander ;; turtle procedure rt random 50 lt random 50 fd stride-length end to eat-grass ;; bugs procedure ;; bugs eat grass, turn the patch brown if pcolor = green [ set pcolor dirt-color set energy energy + bugs-gain-from-food ;; bugs gain energy by eating ] end to reproduce-bugs ;; bugs procedure if random-float 100 < bugs-reproduce [ ;; throw "dice" to see if you will reproduce set energy (energy / 2) ;; divide energy between parent and offspring hatch 1 [ rt random-float 360 fd stride-length ] ;; hatch an offspring and move it forward 1 step ] end to reproduce-birds ;; bird procedure if random-float 100 < bird-reproduce [ ;; throw "dice" to see if you will reproduce set energy (energy / 2) ;; divide energy between parent and offspring hatch 1 [ rt random-float 360 fd stride-length ] ;; hatch an offspring and move it forward 1 step ] end to catch-bugs ;; bird procedure let prey one-of bugs-here ;; grab a random bugs if prey != nobody ;; did we get one? if so, [ ask prey [ die ] ;; kill it set energy energy + bird-gain-from-food ] ;; get energy from eating end to death ;; turtle procedure ;; when energy dips below zero, die if energy < 0 [ die ] end to grow-grass ;; patch procedure ;; countdown on brown patches: if reach 0, grow some grass if pcolor = dirt-color [ ifelse countdown <= 0 [ set pcolor grass-color set countdown grass-regrowth-time ] [ set countdown countdown - 1 ] ] end ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Plotting Procedures ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; to update-plots set-current-plot "populations" set-current-plot-pen "bugs" plot count bugs set-current-plot-pen "birds" plot count birds set-current-plot-pen "grass / 4" plot count patches with [pcolor = green] / 4 ;; divide by four to keep it within similar ;; range as bird and bugs populations end to display-labels ask turtles [ set label "" ] if show-energy? [ ask birds [ set label round energy ] if show-energy? [ ask bugs [ set label round energy set label-color red + 3.5 ] ] ] end to update-statistics set min-energy-of-any-bug min [energy] of bugs set max-energy-of-any-bug max [energy] of bugs set avg-energy-of-bugs mean [energy] of bugs end ;;to drop-turtle [name coords] ;; ask turtles with [grabber = name] ;; [ setxy first coords last coords ;; set grabber "" ] ;;end
There is only one version of this model, created over 14 years ago by Uri Wilensky.
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