EMERGENT FEATURES IN A GENERAL FOOD WEB SIMULATION: LOTKA–VOLTERRA, GAUSE'S LAW, AND THE PARADOX OF ENRICHMENT

Computer simulations of complex food-webs are important tools for deepening our understanding of these systems. Yet most computer models assume, rather than generate, key system-level patterns, or use mathematical modeling approaches that make it difficult to fully account for nonlinear dynamics. In this paper, we present a computer simulation model that addresses these concerns by focusing on assumptions of agent attributes rather than agent outcomes. Our model utilizes the techniques of complex adaptive systems and agent-based modeling so that system level patterns of a marine ecosystem emerge from the interactions of thousands of individual computer agents. This methodology is validated by using this general simulation model to replicate fundamental properties of a marine ecosystem, including: (i) the predator–prey oscillations found in Lotka–Volterra; (ii) the stepped pattern of biomass accrual from resource enrichment; (iii) the Paradox of Enrichment; and (iv) Gause's Law.