6 Otherfood Files

The otherfood files contain the information about non-dynamic prey that is available for the predators to consume. The otherfood acts as a prey that is always available, and it is used to avoid the situation where the non-availability of a prey stock prevents the predators from growing as expected.

To define otherfood in the Gadget model, the “main” file must contain a list of the data files that contain the description of the otherfood, and the format for this is shown below:

[otherfood]
otherfoodfiles         <names of the otherfood files>

The main otherfood file lists the otherfood, along with basic information about the food and the name of the datafile that contains information about the amount of food that is available for the predators to eat. The format for this file shown below, with each new otherfood starting with the keyword [component]:

[component]
foodname               <food name>
livesonareas           <areas>
lengths                <min>  <max>
energycontent          <energy value>
amount                 <see Food Amounts>

The otherfood is defined by specifying the otherfood name and areas it is available for consumption on and the minimum and maximum length of food (for compatibility with the dynamic stock predation and printer classes).

6.1 Food Amounts

The amounts section of the otherfood file gives the biomass of otherfood that is available for the predators to eat. This data is listed in a column format in a separate file, so the main otherfood file simply gives the name of this otherfood data file, as shown in the example below:

amount                 <name of data file>

For the otherfood datafile, this is a simple list of year, timestep, area, food name and then the biomass of the food available for the predators to eat, for that timestep/area combination. This format is shown below:

<year>  <step>  <area>  <food name>  <amount>