BioMASS: A biological multi-agent simulation system

This article presents an agent based model for the simulation of biological systems. The approach consists mainly of providing individual based models for each of the functional groups that conform an ecosystem. Functional groups (a term commonly used by ecologists) may represent a group of individuals (from the same or from different species) that share relevant attributes. This provides flexibility to configure different kinds of populations by parametrization without the need of programming, something useful for biologists. Additionally, a simulation tool implemented as a multi-agent system facilitates the analysis and understanding of ecological complexity. Multi-agent systems are proposed to address heterogeneity and autonomy demanded by the interdisciplinary individual-based modeling methodology. The objective of the system is to explore the intricate relationships among population and individuals, in an ecosystem approach. The main difference with other tools is the ability of incorporating individual decisions, based on metabolism and environmental conditions.