ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 illustrates that ecological dynamics can be expressed by describing individual organisms and changes in their marks (e.g., location, size, maturity, etc.) over time. It specifically illustrates this with two examples: (1) by simulating individual timelines (birth and death timing) and resulting population size, and (2) simulating individual locations and deriving population habitat utilization. The chapter then shows how to analyze these individual (Lagrangian) dynamics by discretizing space and time and fitting a gridded (Eulerian) statistical model. To for these gridded models, it introduces the components of a Generalized Linear Model (GLM) and shows how to fit GLMs using either basic R functions or by defining a likelihood function and using Template Model Builder to identify parameters that maximize this likelihood. Readers will also learn basic tools to visualize output and evaluate model diagnostics.
