Since Elton and Harper, the fields of animal and plant population ecology have advanced rapidly. As a field, population ecology has benefited from cross-pollination between mathematics, ecological modelling, and formal demography. This cross-pollination has been aided by efforts to increase the user-friendliness of demographic approaches, which has encouraged broader adoption of these methods by population ecologists. Specifically, demographic approaches can now be used to answer questions regarding the ecology, evolution and conservation biology of thousands of species worldwide, from lions to dandelions. However, there are some challenges ahead that can be broadly classified into data collection, modelling, and application, and which should become the focus of research in population ecology.
Results/Conclusions
Here, I provide my personal views on the next 10 big challenges in population ecology. Briefly, these are:
- Data collection: (1) taxonomic biases, (2) cryptic stages, (3) effective sampling effort through time and space, (4) clonality,
- Modelling: incorporation of (5) density dependence, (6) eco-evolutionary dynamics, (7) process errors,
- Applications: (8) integration of economic costs in management, (9) avoidance of the "cook book" syndrome, and (10) model validation.
Together, these 10 challenges highlight where research effort within the field of population ecology should focus in the coming decade.