S. Ramachandramurthi et al., PARALLEL SIMULATION OF INDIVIDUAL-BASED, PHYSIOLOGICALLY STRUCTURED POPULATION-MODELS, Mathematical and computer modelling, 25(12), 1997, pp. 55-70
A general scheme for parallel simulation of individual-based, structur
ed population models is proposed. Algorithms are developed to simulate
such models in a parallel computing environment. The simulation model
consists of an individual model and a population model that incorpora
tes the individual dynamics. The individual model is a continuous time
representation of organism life history for growth with discrete allo
cations for reproductive processes. The population model is a continuo
us time simulation of a nonlinear partial differential equation of ext
ended McKendrick-von Foerster-type. As a prototypical example, we show
that a specific individual-based, physiologically structured model fo
r Daphnia populations is well suited for parallelization, and signific
ant speed-ups can be obtained by using efficient algorithms developed
along our general scheme. Because the parallel algorithms are applicab
le to generic structured populations which are the foundation for popu
lations in a more complex community or food-web model, parallel comput
ation appears to be a valuable tool for ecological modeling and simula
tion.