Managing large and complex population operations with agent-based models: The ALMaSS Population_Manager

We describe the method used to manage large and complicated populations of autonomous agent-based animal models in the Animal Landscape and Man Simulation System, as implemented in the ALMaSS Population_Manager class. Using three examples, we show how this approach facilitates the representation of populations in a mixed serial and parallel computer model, contributes to the efficiency of code operation and allows detailed behavioural representations to be modelled.