APPLICATION OF ADVANCED SIMULATION MODELLING TOOLS TO ANSWER LARGE-SCALE QUESTIONS IN TROPICAL FOREST ECOLOGY

Abstract

Ecology is facing a challenging time. The pressures from an expanding human population is resulting in a global decline in biodiversity. What remains is confined to fragmented patches of habitat broken by urbanisation, agriculture and industry. To understand biodiversity in our natural world, our ecological theories of fragmentation must be more complete and our models more accurate. Recent technological advances have enabled a broad array of new methods which ecologists can employ. In this thesis, I will explore one branch of ecological modelling – neutral theory – to study patterns of biodiversity in fragmented landscapes. I will present my new packages for simulating spatially explicit neutral dynamics, a powerful tool for studying fragmentation. I will then demonstrate how my models can be applied in three broad areas: theoretical ecology, tropical ecology and palaeoecology.