Simple control flow diagram of the simulation algorithm.

<p>Ecological processes that have been incorporated into the algorithm to specify the life cycle of a plant species, including the interaction with secondary seed dispersers. After an initial map (year 0) of plant number per occupied cell is determined, the simulation starts by letting adult plants (top of the diagram) produce seeds which may then follow different paths through the algorithm. They may end up either as predated seeds (which are simply eliminated from the model) or as unremoved, dropped or rejected seeds, all of which may germinate and, eventually, give rise to adult plants again. In the diagram these processes are equivalent to going from top to bottom and, then, back up to the top again. That represents one time step (i.e. one year) in the model, and one whole model run consists of simulating a time period of five years. The simulation follows the fate of every plant and seed individually, both in time (yearly) and space (in each cell).