Modeling ecological and economic systems with STELLA: Part III

This special issue contains a group of eight modeling studies covering a ra nge of ecological and economic systems and problems. The models were all de veloped using Stella((R)), an icon-based software package specifically desi gned for dynamic systems modeling. Models included in the special issue wer e built to describe and analyze: communities of organisms under the effects of random variability in disturbance rates and episodic disturbances; a sp atially explicit metapopulation of white-tailed deer in a simulated landsca pe, a parcel level study of landcover change for smallholders in Altamira, Brazil, a discrete-ti-me age structured single species fishery with dynamic total allowable catch limits, a metapopulation with an Alee effect driven to extinction by environmental stochasticity; seasonal deciduous forest gro wth to compare with remote sensing data (NDVI); herbivorous consumers in th e Great Bay Estuary (New Hampshire); and dynamic patterns of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in relation to the value of ecosystem services. Mos t of the models described in this issue are available for download from htt p:// iee.umces.edu/DMEES/Arch. A run time only version of Stella for Window s or the Macintosh is available for free to run the models from www.hps-inc .com. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.