mcbrnet: metacommunity simulation in a branching network

Overview

The package mcbrnet is composed of two main functions: brnet() and mcsim().

• brnet: Function brnet() generates a random branching network with the specified number of patches and probability of branching. The function returns adjacency and distance matrices, hypothetical environmental values at each patch, and the number of patches upstream (akin to the watershed area in river networks). The output may be used in function mcsim() to simulate metacommunity dynamics in a branching network.

• mcsim: Function mcsim() simulates metacommunity dynamics. By default, it produces a square-shaped landscape with randomly distributed habitat patches (x- and y-coordinates are drawn from a uniform distribution). If a distance matrix is given, the function simulates metacommunity dynamics in the specified landscape. Function mcsim() follows a general framework proposed by Thompson et al. (2020) with some modifications.

Change log

• version 1.1.0
  • added disturbance arguments to brnet()
  • added function adjtodist()
• version 1.0.0: initial release

References

Thompson et al. (2020) A process-based metacommunity framework linking local and regional scale community ecology. Ecology Letters 23: 1314-1329.