1. Populus is great. 2. More on R: 2a. untb for neutral theory is a fun simulation that shows the role of demographic stochasticity in a community of identical species. 2b. I will soon be adding a new package to the R repository called ecoprimer that does a lot of basic stuff in population and community ecology (demographic matrix models, storage effect, Lotka Volterra models, disease, host-parasitoid, etc.). 2c. The R package simecol is a great package for a wide variety of modeling in populations and ecosystems.
Cheers, Hank
