Grazers and grass: Monte Carlo simulations

To illustrate the interplay between grazers and grass, we present a novel Monte Carlo model including grass-island growth, consumption of grass by grazers, and birth, migration and death of grazers. The rates of the former and three latter processes are assumed to depend on the environment so that the conventional mean-field approximation does not hold (in particular, the model takes into account that grass grows on the grass-island boundaries, and grazers are mobile and prefer to stay on the areas covered by grass). Due to the feedback between various processes, as expected, the model predicts stable regimes and irregular oscillations of the area of the grass islands and grazer population. The patterns observed are however different compared to those predicted by conventional Monte Carlo prey–predator models. Specifically, there is no tendency for grazers and grass to segregate. The mean-field version of the model is briefly discussed as well.