ABSTRACT
A dilemma in ecology is posed by the contrast between simple strategic models, which offer generality but are exceedingly difficult to test against the performance of particular real systems, and complex tactical models, which aim to account for and be tested against particular systems but which do not easily yield generality. We explore the possibility that linked sequences of individual-based models provide the means for developing a theory of population and community ecology that is both testable and general. Individual-based models are by their nature preadapted to incorporating the mechanisms that determine a system’s dynamics. In their more detailed forms they are therefore highly testable. For the same reason, they lend themselves to a process of progressive removal of particular features, which should facilitate distinguishing the “essential” mechanisms from those that account for detail rather than major dynamic features. We illustrate these ideas with a theoretical and experimental program investigating the interaction between populations of the zooplankter Daphnia and algal food supply.
