13. Ecology Software (Simulation, Datacollection, Statistics, etc.)

Though I know there is some MS-Windows based software which is used in ecological science (there is even a branch environmental informatic), I know only Ecolab available for Linux yet. But I guess Linux software (for instance databases or statistics programs) may easily adopted. Also it might be possible to use a Linux cluster to solve ecological simulations.

13.1 Ecolab

Ecolab is both the name of a software package and a research project that is looking at the dynamics of evolution. http://parallel.acsu.unsw.edu.au/rks/ecolab.html EcoLab is a system that implements an abstract ecology model. It is written as a set of Tcl/Tk commands so that the model parameters can easily be changed on the fly by means of editing a script. The model itself is written in C++.

13.2 OpenClassroom

"OpenClassroom - distribution for Education. Pre-alpha. homepage: OpenClassroom is integrating a package of software that allows educational and community organizations to create communities of knowledge by connecting their existing PCs (old or new) into a network, both local and worldwide, such as the Internet. A central focus of this initiative is to allow such organizations to extend the usable life of their equipment by bringing them state-of-the-art software that runs on their existing PCs. Our toolset allows organizations and citizens to own and operate their own digital printing press."

13.3 Tierra

Tierra is a tool for studying digital evolution and ecology that runs on Linux and other OSes.

13.4 Linux in Environmental Research

Courtesy of Wade W. Hampton: Linux is ideally suited for use as a research tool for environmental experiments. There are small embedded Linux solutions that can be used for remote monitoring or telemetry. There are VERY small Linux implementations from PC-104 systems to embedded systems like the uCsimm. Linux even flew on the shuttle controlling biological experiments.... Linux has been used for weather research on NOAA's Hurricane Hunter aircraft.

Linux is also an ideal platform for researching ecological and environmental information via the Internet using standard WWW-based tools like Netscape.

Linux may even be used to model complex biological and environmental processes. A ( beowulf cluster could be used to run complex simulations of environmental processes, for example Earthdome and a survey at A COLLECTION OF LINKS OF VISUALIZATION & SIMULATION OF SELF-ORGANIZED SYSTEMS.

13.5 SWARM

SWARM is a software package for multi-agent simulation of complex systems that is being developed by the Swarm Development Group (SDG).

Swarm is intended to be a useful tool for researchers in a variety of disciplines, especially artificial life. The basic architecture of Swarm is the simulation of collections of concurrently interacting agents: with this architecture, we can implement a large variety of agent based models. The source code is freely available under GNU Licensing terms.

13.6 Climate-Dynamics

Climate-Dynamics is project to share computer client resources to analyze the climate.

13.7 UNCERT

UNCERT is a geostatistical uncertainty analysis package applied to groundwater flow and contaminant transport modeling. This package was developed for evaluating the inherent uncertainty in describing subsurface geology, hydraulic properties, and the migration of hazardous contaminants in groundwater flow systems. It is well suited for the aforementioned purposes, but is also sufficiently general to be usable by researchers in a wide range of disciples.

13.8 EcoTopia

The EcoTopia web site uses computer simulation to model Santa Cruz, California as an ideal environmental community. For Ecotourists and Green Consumers, EcoTopia strives to offer the nation a model of integration of technology and environmental remediation using computer modeling and image forecasting.