Model Parameter Estimation

The correct SPOM parametrization is one of the most crucial steps of every simulation procedure allowed by the package. The parameters are the numeric translation of the relation of the species with the landscape. Although this is not the main focus of this package, MetaLandSim offers some basic tools that will help to estimate the parameters to run the simulations. However, the user can have the parameters values available from other sources (whether published papers or estimated with other software tools) in each case the simulations can be run using those parameters. For a good overview of the several methods to parametrize the SPOM see Etienne et al. (2004). Most of the methods described can be implemented with MetaLandSim. Also, it is recommended that the user reads the book by Hanski (1999) in order to acquire the basic knowledge about metapopulation ecology and the first estimation procedures. The function parameter.estimate is the package tool to parametrize the spom function. This vignette clarifies the options available and gives a step-by-step guide of the function usage. The current version of the package does not executes all computations. Rather, some of the methods ((’MCsim’,’rescue’and ’norescue’) create the files needed as input to two applications provided by Moilanen (1999) (MCsim) and ter Braak and Etienne (2003) ((’rescue’ and ’norescue’). Future versions of the package should incorporate these procedures in the R code. The objective of this vignette is to describe the parametrization procedures, allowing the user to produce robust estimates of the parameters in order to proceed with the landscape simulation process or with the range expansion simulation. Third vignette is run with made up data based upon real information.