Species abundance patterns in an ecosystem simulation studied through Fisher's logseries

Abstract

We have developed an individual-based evolving predator-prey ecosystem simulation that integrates, for the first time, a complex individual behaviour model, an evolutionary mechanism and a speciation process, at an acceptable computational cost. In this article, we analyse the species abundance patterns observed in the communities generated by our simulation, based on Fisher's logseries. We propose a rigorous methodology for testing abundance data against the logseries. We show that our simulation produces coherent results, in terms of relative species abundance, when compared to classical ecological patterns. Some preliminary results are also provided about how our simulation is supporting ecological field results