Individual-based modelling in ecology: what makes the difference?
Is individual-based modelling really a new approach in ecology? A large part of the uncertainty surrounding this question is a consequence of imprecisely delimited boundaries between classical and individual-based modelling. Genuine 'individual-based' models describe a population made up of individuals that may differ from one another; they also describe changes in numbers of individuals rather than in the population density, and take resource dynamics explicitly into account. Individual-based models that fulfil these criteria will not characterize ecological systems as 'stable' systems in their ideal form, with equilibrium states represented by points in the phase space.
Janusz Uchmátiski is at the Institute of Ecology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 05092 ŁLomianki, Poland.
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