ECOL: A Computer Language for Ecological Simulations with an Example from Pest Population Management

DORTA, R. AND J. E. RABINOVICH

Systems Analysis and Modelling Approaches in Environment Systems

Systems Analysis and Modelling

Lugar: Varsovia; Año: 1974; p. 133 - 160

Through the example used in this paper we have shown the flexibility and usefulness offered by an ECOL-type language. Although the situation chosen as an example was relatively simple, the extemely straightforward fashion in which the partition can be performed in the ECOL language leaves open the possibility of simulating with simplicity more complex oases such as species interaction, communities, ecosystems, and also such processes as speciation, evolution, succession and dispersion. The amount of work saved by the ecologist can be appreciated by making the following comparison: the Triatoma infestans program when writen in FORTRAN took approximately 300 cards (involving 5 subroutines) in its most elementary version. An equivalent version in ECOL language would have taken 38 cards, as shown in Appendix 2. However, it is obvious that it is not this numerical saving in itself that is advantageous to the ecologist, but the time and energy saved in programming, debugging, and input/output formatting.