PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - A. Bradley Duthie
AU  - Jeremy J. Cusack
AU  - Isabel L. Jones
AU  - Erlend B. Nilsen
AU  - Rocío A. Pozo
AU  - O. Sarobidy Rakotonarivo
AU  - Bram Van Moorter
AU  - Nils Bunnefeld
TI  - GMSE: an R package for generalised management strategy evaluation
AID  - 10.1101/221432
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 221432
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/17/221432.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/17/221432.full
AB  - Management strategy evaluation (MSE) is a powerful tool for simulating all key aspects of natural resource management under conditions of uncertainty.We present the R package GMSE, which generalises MSE using a game-theoretic approach, applying genetic algorithms to simulate adaptive decision-making management scenarios between stakeholders with competing objectives under complex social-ecological interactions and uncertainty.GMSE models can be agent-based and spatially explicit, incorporating a high degree of realism through mechanistic modelling of links and feedbacks among stakeholders and with the ecosystem; additionally, user-defined sub-models can also be incorporated as functions into the broader GMSE framework.We show how GMSE simulates a social-ecological system using the example of an adaptively managed waterfowl population on an agricultural landscape; simulated waterfowl exploit agricultural land, causing conflict between conservation interests and the interest of food producers maximising their crop yield.The R package GMSE is open source under GNU Public License; source code and documents are freely available on GitHub.