Modelling in Population Biology

Abstract

This chapter takes our previous discussion of simulation in Artificial Life and places it into the broader context of population biology, which can be viewed as an earlier progenitor of Alife. Population biologists frequently use mathematical models to investigate the behaviour of animal populations, drawing from a similar methodological toolbox as that used by demographers, and in doing so have grappled with the difficulties inherent in modelling complex creatures and behaviours with only systems of equations. Scientists in this discipline have developed some intriguing theoretical frameworks for the use of such models and for describing their limitations, and here we see how these ideas can inform our own quest for a useful framework for computational models.