SimAdapt: an individual-based genetic model for simulating landscape management impacts on populations

Summary 1. Simulation models are essential tools in landscape genetics to study how genetic processes are affected by landscape heterogeneity. However, there is still a need to develop different simulation approaches in landscape genetics, so that users may dispose of additional programs to explore further the impact of land-use and land-cover changes on population genetics. 2. We developed a spatially explicit, individual-based, forward-time, landscape-genetic simulation model combined with a landscape cellular automaton to represent evolutionary processes of adaptation and population dynamics in changing landscapes, using the NetLogo environment. 3. This simulation model represents a unique tool for scientists and scholars looking for a practical and pedagogical framework to explore both empirical and theoretical situations.