New Guide Helps Ecologists Model Population Dynamics

Understanding how processes of growth, birth, and death influence species population size is key to managing populations of conservation concern. In a new paper in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Harvard Forest Research Associate Sydne Record and colleagues from an international working group (pictured at left) from the Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research provide an overview and tutorial on modeling the fates of populations using a particular type of population dynamics model called an Integral Projection Model (IPM). In addition to providing extensive R code for IPM construction, the paper includes case studies illustrating how IPMs can be used to predict species' geographic distributions and life-history strategies. 

• Read the paper in Methods in Ecology and Evolution: "Advancing population ecology with integral projection models: a practical guide"