Forest ecologists attempt to understand forest dynamics through the development of spatially-explicit simulation models that describe individual-level interactions. One such model is known as SORTIE. The SORTIE model is relatively recent and fairly highly regarded by community ecologists, despite limited validation. This proposed investigation will use a long-term data set on tree demography to parameterize and validate a forest dynamics simulation model known as SORTIE. One strength of this project is the application of the model to a forest community quite different from that for which it was developed. The investigation will combine field studies, analysis of long-term plot data and simulations. An important focus of the project is to assess the sufficiency of shade tolerance to the theory of forest dynamics by evaluating the performance of SORTIE in predicting several elements of forest structure and dynamics.
