August 2008 Newsletter

LANDIS-II NEWSLETTER - August 2008

Dear LANDIS-II User:

In an effort to keep everyone better informed about LANDIS-II developments, updates, workshops, etc., we are going to begin sending out a newsletter twice a year. Our goal has always been to create the most collaborative and open model possible. In order to do so, we need to keep the user community more informed and more involved. In addition, model development continues at a torrid pace and there are many new and exciting features that may have escaped your notice.

Because this is our first newsletter, I will cover changes and enhancements and news from the past year. If you would like to be removed from this list, please contact me: rmscheller@consbio.org

MODEL CORE UPDATED

The LANDIS-II core has been updated with alterations to file IO and the installer. Further information

USER BULLETIN BOARD

Take a moment to look through the user bulletin board. If you see a topic for which you have experience, please share your thoughts and suggestions. Additional voices and perspectives would be greatly appreciated! Also post any new questions you might have. User BB

DEVELOPERS BULLETIN BOARD

We haven't had a lot of traffic on the developers bulletin board yet. Perhaps we haven't yet reached critical mass. Again, please take a look and post any questions/comments relevant to developing new extensions for LANDIS-II. Developers BB

NEW EXTENSIONS AND TOOLS

LIME: The LANDIS-II Integrated Modeling Environment (LIME) is an application that provides LANDIS-II users an integrated set of tools for working with the model and its data files. LIME

Age Cohort Stats Output: This extension replaces the original species max age out extension. In addition to max age, users can request maps of min age, median age, species richness, community evenness, and others. Age Cohort Stats

Age-list Succession v2.0: Previous versions of LANDIS applied an assumption that species cohorts younger than their age of sexual maturity did not cast shade. This assumption was implemented as a proxy for crown closure, assuming that opportunities for species establishment existed prior to the onset of direct competition for light. Version 2.0 now includes this assumption to be most compatible with earlier versions of LANDIS. Age-list Succession

Dynamic Fuels and Fire System: Mechanistically simulates fire disturbance as a function of a climate stream and fuel types. This extension is in the final stages of beta testing. Dynamic Fire

Dynamic Biomass Fuels: For use with the above, fuel types are classified on the basis of species aboveground biomass. Dynamic Fuels

Biomass by Age Output: Produces maps of species biomass partitioned by age or age range. Biomass by Age

Biomass Harvest: This extension is derived from Base Harvest and allows partial cohort removal. This extension is in the final stages of beta testing. Biomass Harvest

DOCUMENTATION

I posted a series of new introductory Power Point Shows based on our last meeting in October 2007. Documentation

PUBLICATIONS

If you have published a manuscript, dissertations, white-paper, report, etc., of research that used LANDIS-II, please add your publication to the list: Pubs (don't worry about formatting, I can clean that up).

LANDIS-II MEETING PLAN

The LANDIS-II board has decided not to host a meeting this coming year. Although last year's meeting was a resounding success, we decided we needed to take a break to decide: 1) How do we increase user participation? 2) How should we focus the meeting? 3) Where is the most accessible venue? 4) What time of year? A LANDIS-II meeting will be held in 2009, location TBD.

However, if you have training needs or would like our participation to get a project started, one or more of us (Drs. Gustafson, Mladenoff, Scheller, Sturtevant) would be willing to provide on-site training or lead a discussion.

USER FEEDBACK

The quality of the model and the extent of collaborations is dependent upon you! Please give us constructive feedback on the model, documentation, web site, etc. And please contribute what you can to the bulletin boards, publications list, etc. If you have developed a new tool or have generated new documentation for LANDIS-II, we will add that directly to the web site or we can add a link.