Visualization tools

Computers and graph theory, in addition to enabling the modeling and simulation of complex trophic networks, also allow us to present detailed, and beautiful animations. These webs, like the one on the front page of this website, are a powerful educational tool that allow a substantial amount of information to be communicated quickly and memorably.   

Originally, my goal for this project was to add the functionality of McKane's model into a python library developed by Łukasz Pawluczuk, and Mateusz Iskrzyński. Their recent paper discusses their methodology for accurately mapping trophic networks. Their package, available on github, allows users to create animated food webs. While at the moment this serves only as a visual aid for static webs, it would be very feasible to use this software to display simulation evolution.  

 In addition to the classic display of a trophic network, they also implement the creation of inter-species heat maps, providing a tabular view of how energy might move in an ecosystem.