Open Source Visual Basic Ecosystem Sciences Software

SimAssem is a tool for investigating the performances of species richness estimators across widely ranging assemblages and survey designs. Assemblages are simulated by specifying the: 1) number of species, 2) total abundance of individuals, 3) abundance distribution, 4) spatial configuration, 5) species detection probabilities, 6) survey design, and 7) number of grid cells to survey (out of a square grid comprised of 10,000 cells). SimAssem also processes existing encounter data and formats existing and simulated encounter data for other programs. SimAssem, along with the open source code, will hopefully give researchers and managers a tool for assessing the development of new estimators and evaluating potential decisions in a simulated environment. More information on SimAssem is given in Chapter 2, 'SimAssem: a program for simulating species assemblages and estimating species richness', in the dissertation 'Simulating species assemblages and evaluating species richness estimators'.