Dispersal of male deer occurs either when the deer turns 18 months
of age or when the mother gives birth to new fawns (see
Section 2). As in the sequential model, potential dispersal locations
are continually generated up to a maximum number or until a suitable
dispersal location is found. If processor PN
generates a local
grid location, PN
will determine
if the location is suitable for deer existence.
However, message passing is required
if the randomly generated grid cell is not local to the current processor.
If PN
generates a grid location
that is owned by processor PN
, the entire deer structure is sent as
a message to PN
, after updating the deer's row and column to
the new grid position.
Upon receipt of the deer message from PN
, PN
will determine whether
the deer's row and column location is suitable. If so, the deer is
inserted into the deer array owned by PN
. Whether or not
the deer remains
on PN
, a message is sent back to PN
indicating suitability
of the dispersal location.
If the response message from PN
indicates suitable
dispersal habitat, the deer is removed from PN
's deer array
and the
dispersal process is complete. However, if the response indicates
unsuitability, another grid location is generated
and the process is repeated. If, after generating a maximum number of
potential
dispersal locations, no suitable grid cell is found, the deer's row
and column fields are reset to the original values and the deer will
remain at its initial grid position.
A flowchart illustrating the dispersal process
is shown in Figure 8.
and PN
.