GMSE: an R package for generalised management strategy evaluation

Citation

Duthie AB, Cusack JJ, Jones IL, Minderman J, Nilsen EB, Pozo RA, Rakotonarivo OS, Van Moorter B & Bunnefeld N (2018) GMSE: an R package for generalised management strategy evaluation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9 (12), pp. 2396-2401. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.13091

Abstract
1. Management strategy evaluation (MSE) is a powerful tool for simulating all key aspects of natural resource management under conditions of uncertainty. 2. We present the R package GMSE, which applies genetic algorithms to provide a generalised tool for simulating adaptive decision‐making management scenarios between stakeholders with competing objectives under complex social‐ecological interactions and uncertainty. 3. GMSE models can be agent‐based and spatially explicit, incorporating a high degree of realism through mechanistic modelling of links and feedbacks among stakeholders and with the ecosystem; additionally, user‐defined sub‐models can also be incorporated as functions into the broader GMSE framework. 4. We show how GMSE simulates a social‐ecological system using the example of an adaptively managed waterfowl population on an agricultural landscape; simulated waterfowl exploit agricultural land, causing conflict between conservation interests and the interest of food producers maximising their crop yield. 5. The R package GMSE is open source under GNU Public License; source code and documents are freely available on GitHub.

Keywords
adaptive management; conservation conflict; ecological modelling; game theory; management strategy evaluation;

Journal
Methods in Ecology and Evolution: Volume 9, Issue 12

People

Professor Nils Bunnefeld

Professor, Biological and Environmental Sciences

Dr Brad Duthie

Lecturer in Environmental Modelling, Biological and Environmental Sciences

Dr Isabel Jones

Senior Research Fellow, Biological and Environmental Sciences