MATRIX POPULATION MODELS FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE 4-9 MARCH, 2019
Venue: 219 Newins-Ziegler Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Instructors:
- Jean-Dominique Lebreton (jean-dominique.lebreton@cefe.cnrs.fr), CEFE/
CNRS, Montpellier, France
- Jim Hines (jhines@usgs.gov), US Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center,
MD
- Madan Oli (olim@ufl.edu), Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University
of Florida
Matrix population models are standard tools for the study of life history and
population dynamics of age- or stage-structured populations. These models have
become popular in population biology and wildlife management because they are
powerful, flexible, and can be applied to organisms with diverse
life-histories and population structures. This workshop will review the
construction and analysis of matrix population models, and their applications
to wildlife conservation and management. We will discuss deterministic models
and their generalization to include environmental stochasticity, demographic
stochasticity, density-dependence, and spatial structure. We will also explore
the practical application of matrix models using parameter estimates obtained
from field data. We will emphasize a "bottom-up" approach that views models as
tools to answer questions and modeling as an "art of simplification". The
focus will be on the use of models to explore the conservation of plant and
animal populations, and management of harvested populations based on tools
from the theory of exploited populations.
The format of the workshop will be a combination of lectures (with ample
examples), hands-on exercises, and analysis of participant's data. Computer
lab exercises will use R, a free open-source coding language that provides the
user with near limitless flexibility, and at the same time, the ability to use
more constrained but easy to use "packages" in the R environment.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own data to explore during the
workshop. Participants should also have a general interest in quantitative
methods and will gain the most if familiar with basic population ecology,
statistics and math (calculus and algebra). The workshop is intended to be
both an introduction to population and community parameter estimation methods,
and a gateway to advanced applications. Participants will have to bring their
own laptops.
Regular workshop fee is $700 until 1 February 2019, and $800 thereafter. For
students, workshop fee is substantially lower ($350 until 1 February 2019, and
$400 thereafter).
To register, please visit:
http://reg.conferences.dce.ufl.edu/Basic/1400070288
For more info, visit:
course info