Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-22-2012

Publication Title

Aquatic Invasions

Keywords

Invasive species, Species distribution models, Lionfish, Cellular automata, Caulerpa taxifolia, Web portal, Software

ISSN

1798-6540

Volume

7

Issue/No.

3

First Page

405

Last Page

417

Abstract

Predicting and averting the spread of invasive species is a core focus of resource managers in all ecosystems. Patterns of invasion are difficult to forecast, compounded by a lack of user-friendly species distribution model (SDM) tools to help managers focus control efforts. This paper presents a web-based cellular automata hybrid modeling tool developed to study the invasion pattern of lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) in the western Atlantic and is a natural extension our previous lionfish study. Our goal is to make publically available this hybrid SDM tool and demonstrate both a test case (P. volitans/miles) and a use case (Caulerpa taxifolia). The software derived from the model, titled Invasionsoft, is unique in its ability to examine multiple default or user-defined parameters, their relation to invasion patterns, and is presented in a rich web browser-based GUI with integrated results viewer. The beta version is not species-specific and includes a default parameter set that is tailored to the marine habitat. Invasionsoft is provided as copyright protected freeware at http://www.invasionsoft.com.

Comments

©2012 The Author(s). Journal compilation ©2012 REABIC

ResearcherID

B-8552-2013

DOI

10.3391/ai.2012.7.3.011

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