Ecosystem simulation through use of models of subsystem response structures

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Abstract
Every system has specific kinds and levels of re sponses to conditions as they exist and change in the environment in which the system is immersed. Each response can be expressed quantitatively by a structure in N-dimensional space, where N refers to the number of different environmental factors which operate together to determine the level of that response, and each dimension represents one of the determinative environmental factors. Examination via this response structure of the relationship between environmental factor levels and the system's response permits analysis and modeling of the system's dynamics and allows accurate evaluation of its relationships to other systems. This paper in cludes examples of use of this approach in the modeling of the ecological processes of population growth, competition, predation, and evolution, and it presents a model of a simple hierarchical eco system. Suggestions are made concerning the utiliza tion of this analytical and heueristic approach to examine other, very different systems; brief examples from economics, public health, and social psychology are given.

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