Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/P020283/1
Stage-based demographic models in ecology, evolution and conservation biology
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Dr R Salguero-Gomez, University of Oxford, Zoology
- Grant held at:
- University of Oxford, Zoology
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Atmospheric
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Demography (General)
- Conservation Ecology
- Population Ecology
- Abstract:
- The survival and reproduction of individuals within a population are, at the most fundamental level, universal processes among all organisms, from bacteria, to humans, and sequoias. Consequently, understanding what factors shape such components of organismal fitness and what consequences they have for population dynamics and overall performance are central to all of ecology, conservation biology and evolutionary biology. Stage-structured models have emerged as powerful tools to adequately describe a population's trends, regulatory mechanisms and projections into the future. Both matrix population models (MPMs), where individuals are categorized according to some discrete variable (e.g. age, ontogenetic stages), or integral projection models (IPMs), where an individual's survival and reproduction are modelled using a continuous attribute of the individual (e.g. size), have become the most widely used tools in population ecology for animals and plants. Yet, formal training for these important tools is currently missing in the form of intense, question-driven workshops in the UK. The proposed workshop will take place at the University of Sheffield, UK, in two different times along 2017 and then in 2018. The course will be instructed by a mix of early and senior career leaders of MPMs and IPMs. Each of the two years he workshop will last 5 days, from 9am to 5pm, and will cover the fundaments of stage-structured demography with MPMs at the beginner's level in day 1. Day 2 will be devoted to the calculation of life history traits (e.g. mean life expectancy, age at first reproduction - taught by Salguero-Gomez) and short-term demographic metrics (e.g. degree of demographic resilience, reactivity, etc - taught by McDonald). In day 3, the participants will construct IPMs using the R library IPMpack, co-developed Salguero-Gomez, and Jongejans (http://ipmpack.r-forge.r-project.org). The rest of day 3 and day 4 will cover examples from a book on IPMs (Ellner, Rees & Childs) of recent publication (http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783319288918). In the second half of day 4 and day 5 the instructors will work on break-out groups with the participants to develop stage-structured models targeted to best fit the data and questions of the workshop participants. The weeklong workshop will be structured around mini-lectures (30 mins each) followed by fully commented exercises using R that the instructors have already developed. By the end of the workshop the participants will be very familiar with the parameterization, analyses and interpretation of outputs from MPMs and IPMs. Special emphasis will be given to applications of MPMs and IPMs to questions in ecological research, evolutionary biology and conservation science through the teaching of how to quantify selection gradients, implement population viability analyses, and derive life history traits from these models. Advanced users will learn state-ofthe-art applications of eco-evolutionary IPMs to cross-classify individuals according to size and evolving traits
- NERC Reference:
- NE/P020283/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Doctoral Training
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Advanced Training
This training grant award has a total value of £29,319
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Other Costs |
|---|
| £29,319 |
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