spesim: Defining Interspecific Interactions

spesim team

2026-02-23

Overview

In spesim, interspecific interactions are encoded as a directed coefficient matrix \(M\) that modifies local establishment probability within a neighbourhood radius \(r\). Values < 1 represent net competitive effects (suppression); values > 1 represent net facilitative effects; 1 is neutral. The effective neighbourhood is defined by a single global interaction radius in the same map units as your simulation.

You can provide interactions in two convenient ways:

• A) External CSV file referenced from your init file (simple and spreadsheet‑friendly).
• B) Inline rules directly in the init file via INTERACTIONS_EDGELIST (no extra files).

spesim_run() will automatically resolve interactions when either key is present in the init file. Under the hood it calls the package loaders (e.g. load_interactions(), load_interactions_inline()) and then validates/prints the resolved matrix.

---

A) External CSV file

CSV format

Create a CSV with three columns, in this exact order:

focal,neighbour,value

• focal — a single species label (A..Z).
• neighbour — the set of species affected by focal. This field supports rich syntax (see below) inside one cell; if it contains commas, keep the cell quoted so CSV structure stays intact.
• value — numeric coefficient. < 1 = suppressive; > 1 = facilitative.

Optional metadata row for radius: put a first row with "_RADIUS_" in focal, empty neighbour, and a numeric value to set the global neighbourhood radius (otherwise radius can be set in the init file).

Allowed neighbour syntax (inside the single neighbour cell)

• Single species: A
• List (any of comma, pipe, or semicolon): "B,L" or "B|L" or "B;L"
• Range: "B-D" expands to B,C,D
• Wildcard: "*" means all species except the focal
• You can mix them: "B-D,L"

Notes

• Neighbour strings live inside one CSV cell. If you use commas, quote the cell (most spreadsheets handle this automatically).
• Effects are directed. A → B does not imply B → A.
• Any pairs not specified remain neutral (1.0).

Example CSV

focal,neighbour,value
"_RADIUS_","",30
A,"B-D,L",0.8      # A suppresses B,C,D,L
C,"A",1.2          # C facilitates A
E,"*",0.95         # E slightly suppresses everyone else (not E itself)

(Inline # comments won’t be preserved by all tools; keep commentary in your notes/vignette rather than inside the CSV.)

Referencing the CSV in your init file

Add this line to your init file (paths can be relative to the working directory):

INTERACTIONS_FILE = "path/to/interactions.csv"

You may also set the radius in the init file instead of the CSV metadata row:

INTERACTION_RADIUS = 30

If both are supplied, the init file value typically takes precedence (see the function documentation for exact precedence rules in your version).

---

B) Inline rules in the init file (INTERACTIONS_EDGELIST)

You can embed an edgelist directly in your init file using a character vector where each element is one rule in strict three‑field form (exactly two commas per rule):

focal,neighbour,value

• focal — single label (e.g. A).
• neighbour — accepts singles, ranges (B-D), lists with commas (non‑contiguous sets), and the wildcard * (all except the focal). You can mix ranges and singles, e.g. B-D,H.
• value — numeric coefficient.

Minimal example (init file)

# Distance threshold (0 disables the neighbourhood modifier)
INTERACTION_RADIUS = 1.5

# Directed rules (exactly two commas per rule: focal , neighbour , value)
INTERACTIONS_EDGELIST = c(
  "A,B-D,0.80",      # A suppresses B..D
  "C,A,1.20",        # C facilitates A
  "E,*,0.95",        # E slightly suppresses everyone else (not E itself)
  "H,B,D,G,0.70",    # H suppresses a non-contiguous set: B, D, G
  "J,B-D,H,0.60"     # J suppresses B..D plus H (mix of range + single)
)

Semantics

• Rules are directed.
• * expands to every species except the focal.
• To include self‑effects, list the focal explicitly in the neighbour set (e.g., "A,A,0.9").
• The final matrix is S×S for S = N_SPECIES (A..); any missing pairs default to 1.0. Labels outside A.. are ignored with a warning.

Quick validation & preview

By default, spesim_run() validates and pretty‑prints the resolved interaction matrix:

• interactions_validate = TRUE — checks shape, names, and finiteness.
• interactions_strict = TRUE — stop on validation issues (else warn).
• interactions_print = TRUE — compact summary showing entries most different from 1.0.

(These are function arguments; keep defaults unless you want to change behaviour programmatically.)

---

End‑to‑end usage

A typical init file might include either the CSV pointer or the inline edgelist (not both), plus the usual simulation settings. For example:

# core sim
SEED = 77
N_INDIVIDUALS = 2000
N_SPECIES = 10

# interactions — choose ONE of the following blocks

# A) External CSV
# INTERACTIONS_FILE = "inst/extdata/interactions.csv"
# INTERACTION_RADIUS = 30

# B) Inline rules
INTERACTION_RADIUS = 1.5
INTERACTIONS_EDGELIST = c(
  "A,B-D,0.80",
  "C,A,1.20",
  "E,*,0.95"
)

Then run:

library(spesim)

res <- spesim_run(
  "inst/examples/my_init.txt",
  output_prefix = "out/run",
  write_outputs = TRUE
)

The runner will: 1) load parameters and interactions, 2) simulate the landscape, 3) place quadrats, 4) build tables/figures, 5) validate/print the interaction matrix (if enabled), and 6) write outputs under out/run_*timestamp*.

---

Troubleshooting

• CSV neighbour cell split across columns — make sure the cell is quoted if it contains commas.
• Unexpected species labels — only A.. up to N_SPECIES are used; others are ignored with a warning.
• No effect observed — set a positive INTERACTION_RADIUS (0 turns the neighbourhood modifier off), and ensure rules differ from 1.0.
• Matrix dimension warning — the loader always produces an S×S (S = N_SPECIES) matrix; individual CSV rows can be partial, the rest is filled with 1.0.