Crop yield as well as the success of genetic variants in nature is highly dependent on overall population density as well as the relative frequency of these variants. Studying a whole range of densities and frequencies in plants is made easier where density and frequency can be varied using a clever arrangement of the plants, or the so-called “hexagonal fan designs”.Such designs are geometrically complex difficult to generate by hand, and we here present a computer app that can produce these designs quickly. We also show how they can be implemented easily in the field to study how disease dispersal is affected by plant density.
Rosins, C., Hood, M. E., Antonovics, J. 2020. Exploring density and frequency dependent interactions experimentally: an R program for generating hexagonal fan designs. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 11: 678-683.