VirtualCom2014

VirtualCom simulates the evolution of the pool of regionally occurring species, the process-based assembly of native communities, and the invasion of novel species into native communities. The model provides functionalities for a variety of processes. Most importantly, in the simulation of the species pool, different trait evolution models allow generating clustered and random trait distributions in the phylogeny (resulting in varying strength of phylogenetic signal). Additionally, during community assembly, when the species assemble from the species pool into local communities based on their trait values, the relative strength of environmental filtering and competition can be set independently.