This simulation allows the user to examine the population dynamics of a simplified food chain consisting of a plant species, a herbivore species (prey), and a carnivore species (predator).

You can choose the starting population size for both the prey and predator speices, and the relative plant abundance. An abundance of 100 represents the maximum supported by the environment.

The relative reproduction can be selected for the predator and prey. Relative reproduction is an indicator of the amount of offspring produced per individual. Low reproduction is represented by 1 and inidcates fewer offspring produced.

Relative predation represents the amount of prey needed for an individual predator to survive and reproduce. The relative herbivory represents the relative amount of plants necessary for the prey to survive and reproduce.

You can also control the number of generations run in the simulation. For this simulation the plant, prey, and predator all have a similarly timed life cycles.

The graph has a separate y-axis for plants, predator, and prey. Make sure to check the different scales (color coded) when reading the data.

Keep in mind that real community population dynamics are more complex than what is represented in this simulation.