Data-driven Modelling of Structured Populations

Data-driven Modelling of Structured Populations PDF Author: Stephen P. Ellner
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319288938
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
This book is a “How To” guide for modeling population dynamics using Integral Projection Models (IPM) starting from observational data. It is written by a leading research team in this area and includes code in the R language (in the text and online) to carry out all computations. The intended audience are ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and mathematical biologists interested in developing data-driven models for animal and plant populations. IPMs may seem hard as they involve integrals. The aim of this book is to demystify IPMs, so they become the model of choice for populations structured by size or other continuously varying traits. The book uses real examples of increasing complexity to show how the life-cycle of the study organism naturally leads to the appropriate statistical analysis, which leads directly to the IPM itself. A wide range of model types and analyses are presented, including model construction, computational methods, and the underlying theory, with the more technical material in Boxes and Appendices. Self-contained R code which replicates all of the figures and calculations within the text is available to readers on GitHub. Stephen P. Ellner is Horace White Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, USA; Dylan Z. Childs is Lecturer and NERC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at The University of Sheffield, UK; Mark Rees is Professor in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at The University of Sheffield, UK.

Data-driven Modelling of Structured Populations

Data-driven Modelling of Structured Populations PDF Author: Stephen P. Ellner
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319288938
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 339

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is a “How To” guide for modeling population dynamics using Integral Projection Models (IPM) starting from observational data. It is written by a leading research team in this area and includes code in the R language (in the text and online) to carry out all computations. The intended audience are ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and mathematical biologists interested in developing data-driven models for animal and plant populations. IPMs may seem hard as they involve integrals. The aim of this book is to demystify IPMs, so they become the model of choice for populations structured by size or other continuously varying traits. The book uses real examples of increasing complexity to show how the life-cycle of the study organism naturally leads to the appropriate statistical analysis, which leads directly to the IPM itself. A wide range of model types and analyses are presented, including model construction, computational methods, and the underlying theory, with the more technical material in Boxes and Appendices. Self-contained R code which replicates all of the figures and calculations within the text is available to readers on GitHub. Stephen P. Ellner is Horace White Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, USA; Dylan Z. Childs is Lecturer and NERC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at The University of Sheffield, UK; Mark Rees is Professor in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at The University of Sheffield, UK.

Discrete-Time Dynamics of Structured Populations and Homogeneous Order-Preserving Operators

Discrete-Time Dynamics of Structured Populations and Homogeneous Order-Preserving Operators PDF Author: Horst R. Thieme
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
ISBN: 1470474654
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
A fundamental question in the theory of discrete and continuous-time population models concerns the conditions for the extinction or persistence of populations – a question that is addressed mathematically by persistence theory. For some time, it has been recognized that if the dynamics of a structured population are mathematically captured by continuous or discrete semiflows and if these semiflows have first-order approximations, the spectral radii of certain bounded linear positive operators (better known as basic reproduction numbers) act as thresholds between population extinction and persistence. This book combines the theory of discrete-time dynamical systems with applications to population dynamics with an emphasis on spatial structure. The inclusion of two sexes that must mate to produce offspring leads to the study of operators that are (positively) homogeneous (of degree one) and order-preserving rather than linear and positive. While this book offers an introduction to ordered normed vector spaces, some background in real and functional analysis (including some measure theory for a few chapters) will be helpful. The appendix and selected exercises provide a primer about basic concepts and about relevant topics one may not find in every analysis textbook.

Demographic Methods across the Tree of Life

Demographic Methods across the Tree of Life PDF Author: Roberto Salguero-Gomez
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019257549X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Demography is everywhere in our lives: from birth to death. Indeed, the universal currencies of survival, development, reproduction, and recruitment shape the performance of all species, from microbes to humans. The number of techniques for demographic data acquisition and analyses across the entire tree of life (microbes, fungi, plants, and animals) has drastically increased in recent decades. These developments have been partially facilitated by the advent of technologies such as GIS and drones, as well as analytical methods including Bayesian statistics and high-throughput molecular analyses. However, despite the universality of demography and the significant research potential that could emerge from unifying: (i) questions across taxa, (ii) data collection protocols, and (iii) analytical tools, demographic methods to date have remained taxonomically siloed and methodologically disintegrated. This is the first book to attempt a truly unified approach to demography and population ecology in order to address a wide range of questions in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology across the entire spectrum of life. This novel book provides the reader with the fundamentals of data collection, model construction, analyses, and interpretation across a wide repertoire of demographic techniques and protocols. It introduces the novice demographer to a broad range of demographic methods, including abundance-based models, life tables, matrix population models, integral projection models, integrated population models, individual based models, and more. Through the careful integration of data collection methods, analytical approaches, and applications, clearly guided throughout with fully reproducible R scripts, the book provides an up-to-date and authoritative overview of the most popular and effective demographic tools. Demographic Methods across the Tree of Life is aimed at graduate students and professional researchers in the fields of demography, ecology, animal behaviour, genetics, evolutionary biology, mathematical biology, and wildlife management.

Theoretical Ecology

Theoretical Ecology PDF Author: Kevin S. McCann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192557785
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Theoretical Ecology: concepts and applications continues the authoritative and established sequence of theoretical ecology books initiated by Robert M. May which helped pave the way for ecology to become a more robust theoretical science, encouraging the modern biologist to better understand the mathematics behind their theories. This latest instalment builds on the legacy of its predecessors with a completely new set of contributions. Rather than placing emphasis on the historical ideas in theoretical ecology, the Editors have encouraged each contribution to: synthesize historical theoretical ideas within modern frameworks that have emerged in the last 10-20 years (e.g. bridging population interactions to whole food webs); describe novel theory that has emerged in the last 20 years from historical empirical areas (e.g. macro-ecology); and finally to cover the rapidly expanding area of theoretical ecological applications (e.g. disease theory and global change theory). The result is a forward-looking synthesis that will help guide the field through a further decade of discovery and development. It is written for upper level undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers seeking synthesis and the state of the art in growing areas of interest in theoretical ecology, genetics, evolutionary ecology, and mathematical biology.

Advances in Discrete Dynamical Systems, Difference Equations and Applications

Advances in Discrete Dynamical Systems, Difference Equations and Applications PDF Author: Saber Elaydi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303125225X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description
​This book comprises selected papers of the 26th International Conference on Difference Equations and Applications, ICDEA 2021, held virtually at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in July 2021. The book includes the latest and significant research and achievements in difference equations, discrete dynamical systems, and their applications in various scientific disciplines. The book is interesting for Ph.D. students and researchers who want to keep up to date with the latest research, developments, and achievements in difference equations, discrete dynamical systems, and their applications, the real-world problems.

Statistical Modeling for Naturalists

Statistical Modeling for Naturalists PDF Author: Pedro F. Quintana Ascencio
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527579530
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
This book will allow naturalists, nature stewards, and graduate students to appreciate and comprehend basic statistical concepts as a bridge to more complex themes relevant to their daily work. Although there are excellent sources on more specialized analytical topics relevant to naturalists, this introductory book makes a connection with the experience and needs of field practitioners. It uses aspects of the natural history of the Florida scrub relevant for conservation and management as examples of analytical issues pertinent to the naturalist in a broader context. Each chapter identifies important ecological questions and then provides approaches to evaluate data, focusing on the analytical decision-making process. The book guides the reader on frequently overlooked aspects such as the understanding of model assumptions, alternative model specifications, model output interpretation, and model limitations.

Unsolved Problems in Ecology

Unsolved Problems in Ecology PDF Author: Andrew Dobson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691199833
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
"This volume provides a series of essays on open questions in ecology with the overarching goal being to outline to the most important, most interesting or most fundamental problems in ecology that need to be addressed. The contributions span ecological subfields, from behavioral ecology and population ecology to disease ecology and conservation and range in tone from the technical to more personal meditations on the state of the field. Many of the chapters start or end in moments of genuine curiosity, like one which takes up the question of why the world is green or another which asks what might come of a thought experiment in which we "turn-off" evolution entirely"--

Integrodifference Equations in Spatial Ecology

Integrodifference Equations in Spatial Ecology PDF Author: Frithjof Lutscher
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030292940
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
This book is the first thorough introduction to and comprehensive treatment of the theory and applications of integrodifference equations in spatial ecology. Integrodifference equations are discrete-time continuous-space dynamical systems describing the spatio-temporal dynamics of one or more populations. The book contains step-by-step model construction, explicitly solvable models, abstract theory and numerical recipes for integrodifference equations. The theory in the book is motivated and illustrated by many examples from conservation biology, biological invasions, pattern formation and other areas. In this way, the book conveys the more general message that bringing mathematical approaches and ecological questions together can generate novel insights into applications and fruitful challenges that spur future theoretical developments. The book is suitable for graduate students and experienced researchers in mathematical ecology alike.

Sensitivity Analysis: Matrix Methods in Demography and Ecology

Sensitivity Analysis: Matrix Methods in Demography and Ecology PDF Author: Hal Caswell
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030105342
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This open access book shows how to use sensitivity analysis in demography. It presents new methods for individuals, cohorts, and populations, with applications to humans, other animals, and plants. The analyses are based on matrix formulations of age-classified, stage-classified, and multistate population models. Methods are presented for linear and nonlinear, deterministic and stochastic, and time-invariant and time-varying cases. Readers will discover results on the sensitivity of statistics of longevity, life disparity, occupancy times, the net reproductive rate, and statistics of Markov chain models in demography. They will also see applications of sensitivity analysis to population growth rates, stable population structures, reproductive value, equilibria under immigration and nonlinearity, and population cycles. Individual stochasticity is a theme throughout, with a focus that goes beyond expected values to include variances in demographic outcomes. The calculations are easily and accurately implemented in matrix-oriented programming languages such as Matlab or R. Sensitivity analysis will help readers create models to predict the effect of future changes, to evaluate policy effects, and to identify possible evolutionary responses to the environment. Complete with many examples of the application, the book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in human demography and population biology. The material will also appeal to those in mathematical biology and applied mathematics.

Plant Strategies

Plant Strategies PDF Author: Daniel C. Laughlin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192693883
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
How do plants make a living? Some plants are gamblers, others are swindlers. Some plants are habitual spenders while others are strugglers and miserly savers. Plants have evolved a spectacular array of solutions to the existential problems of survival and reproduction in a world where resources are scarce, disturbances can be deadly, and competition is cut-throat. Few topics have both captured the imagination and furrowed the brows of plant ecologists, yet no topic is more important for understanding the assembly of plant communities, predicting plant responses to global change, and enhancing the restoration of our rapidly degrading biosphere. The vast array of plant strategy models that characterize the discipline now require synthesis. These models tend to emphasize either life history strategies based on demography, or functional strategies based on ecophysiology. Indeed, this disciplinary divide between demography and physiology runs deep and continues to this today. The goal of this accessible book is to articulate a coherent framework that unifies life history theory with comparative functional ecology to advance prediction in plant ecology. Armed with a deeper understanding of the dimensionality of life history and functional traits, we are now equipped to quantitively link phenotypes to population growth rates across gradients of resource availability and disturbance regimes. Predicting how species respond to global change is perhaps the most important challenge of our time. A robust framework for plant strategy theory will advance this research agenda by testing the generality of traits for predicting population dynamics.