5 modelling tools

Individual-Based
Modelling

Simulation tools that model populations from the bottom up — tracking individual organisms, their decisions, movements, and interactions to understand emergent ecosystem dynamics.

CENOP
CETacean Noise-Population Model
Shiny
Agent-based simulation of harbour porpoise population dynamics under offshore noise disturbance. Models individual animal responses to anthropogenic sound, movement displacement, and long-term population-level consequences of marine construction and shipping.
Noise impact Harbour porpoise Population dynamics Spatial displacement
PyPath
Ecopath with Ecosim in Python
Shiny
Python implementation of Ecopath with Ecosim for food web modelling, mass-balance analysis, and dynamic ecosystem simulation. Constructs trophic networks from individual functional groups to explore energy flow, predator-prey interactions, and fisheries impacts.
Food web Trophic networks Mass balance Ecosim dynamics
HexSimPy
Hexagonal landscape simulator
Shiny
Spatially-explicit individual-based model for simulating population dynamics, movement, and species interactions on hexagonal landscapes. Tracks individual organisms across heterogeneous habitat grids to project population viability under environmental change scenarios.
Hexagonal grid Habitat selection Movement ecology Population viability
inSALMO
Individual-based salmonid model
Shiny
Individual-based salmonid model for simulating fish population dynamics, habitat selection, and growth in freshwater and marine domain environments. Models how individual fish choose feeding positions, compete for resources, and respond to changing flow and temperature conditions.
Marine domain modelling Salmonid populations Habitat selection Flow dynamics
OSMOSE
Object-oriented Simulator of Marine Ecosystems
Shiny
Individual-based model for fish community dynamics and trophic interactions. Simulates the full life cycle of multiple interacting species — growth, predation, reproduction, and natural mortality — to explore how fishing pressure and environmental forcing shape marine food webs.
Fish communities Trophic interactions Life cycle Fisheries impact

What is Individual-Based Modelling?

Unlike traditional population models that track aggregate numbers, IBM simulates each organism as a distinct agent with its own state, behaviour rules, and local environment. Emergent population patterns arise naturally from individual-level interactions — making IBMs especially powerful for studying spatial ecology, behavioural adaptation, and responses to environmental change where individual variation matters.

README.md View on GitHub
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