ENM2020 - W33T1 - Mechanistic Models - a

This course forms part of the Ecological Niche Modeling 2020 course, a jointly-taught, open-access course designed to provide a broad introduction to the use of niche modeling and distribution modeling tools in the broader field of distributional ecology.

[@Chale1288]

I have a big question. Do they need to represent actual demographic processes or can they be response curves based on the energy of species? Are inferences only from juveniles not "mechanistic"since they do not reproduce?

[@michaelkearney5325]

Demographic processes depend on births and deaths and so any mechanistic (i.e. from physical first principles) calculation you make about the heat/water/nutritional budget of an organism could be related to demographic processes because these budgets affect births and deaths. But it may be possible to infer places that are completely out of bounds, i.e. impossible to persist at some part of the life cycle, and therefore conclude the population would be zero and not need to go any further with demographic processes. If that inference is made at the egg or juvenile stage, then of course adults can't exist at the location either and so, yes, mechanistic inferences on juveniles are possible and relevant.

[@Chale1288]

@@michaelkearney5325 Thank you very much Dr. Kearney! I really like your work , cheers!