Modelling spatial substructure in wildlife populations using an approximation to the shortest path Voronoi Diagram

Abstract

In the field of conservation biology, accurate population models are important for managing wildlife. It has been acknowledged that spatial structure should form an integral part of such models. Advancement in the power of desktop computers has allowed biologists to construct individual-based, spatially-explicit simulation models to predict the population dynamics of species. These models take into account local interactions and output emergent trends. However, whilst in many cases such models have been useful, for large landscapes, they may still be too computationally expensive. An alternative approach is to construct a metapopulation model. These are usually less computationally expensive..