What are Individual-based Population Models?
Individual-based population models (IBPMs) apply a bottom-up approach to modelling population dynamics in time and space. It means that a population is defined by the characteristics of its constituent individuals. Since individuals with different characteristics (age, stage, size, etc.) may behave differently, population dynamics can only be predicted by integration over all individuals what happened to them after they had interacted with each other and the environment. Individual-based models have shown especially useful as tools for understanding the interplay between behaviour, population dynamics, and evolutionary processes. IBPMs usually possess a high degree of biological realism, but at the expense of simplicity.