gen3sis

gen3sis simulates spatially-explicit eco-evolutionary dynamics to investigate the origins and large-scale patterns of biodiversity.

Key Features:

• Spatially-explicit modelling: Represents dynamic landscapes over time to capture spatio-temporal ecological and evolutionary processes.
• Modular implementation: Provides a modular architecture that enables customization and integration of macroecological and macroevolutionary processes.
• Comprehensive process modelling: Simulates environmental filtering, biotic interactions, dispersal, speciation, and the evolution of ecological traits.
• Emergence of biodiversity patterns: Produces emergent α (alpha), β (beta), and γ (gamma) diversity, species range dynamics, ecological trait distributions, and phylogenies.
• Case study application: Applied to the Cenozoic latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), showing that a model variant with energy-linked carrying capacity reproduced realistic LDG, species range size frequencies, and phylogenetic tree balance.

Scientific Applications:

• Macroecology and macroevolution: Investigates large-scale ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that generate biodiversity patterns.
• Hypothesis testing: Tests alternative scenarios and model variants (for example LDG mechanisms) by comparing simulated outcomes.
• Empirical data integration: Enables comparison of simulated diversity, range, trait, and phylogenetic patterns with empirical biodiversity data.

Methodology:

Implements a numeric, mechanistic, spatially-explicit simulation framework with a modular architecture to simulate environmental filtering, biotic interactions, dispersal, speciation, and trait evolution, and is implemented as an R package.