Red Queen Simulator

User's Manual

      The Red Queen Simulator allows a user to follow the trajectories, over time, of size-abundance regressions in communities, and to observe the effects on these trajectories of evolutionary "winner-loser" interactions among the species. The simulation, its assumptions and scientific relevance are described in Damuth (2007) and in a brief set of notes for users wanting a rapid outline orientation.

1. Upon successful launch, the user is presented with this graphical display, which is reminiscent of a conventional electronic laboratory device of the last century:

Before a simulation run, users can modify many parameters and program states. Quick Start: The default values at startup will perform a quick simulation of 10 faunas for 30 timesteps each, with species interactions turned on. This will allow you to explore how the application works with some reasonable settings. IMPORTANT: Nothing will happen until you turn on the Power Switch!

	2	To begin, turn on the Power switch by clicking on it once. You will notice the left running light will glow red, indicating power, the Start Button will be illuminated, and the CRT-Style display will begin to warm up. After a few seconds the Display will show an empty graph (below, 3). The application is now ready to run a simulation.
	3	This is the "Slopes" screen, with slope values on the vertical axis and timesteps on the horizontal axis.

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