title: Statistical ecology comes of age.
abstract: The desire to predict the consequences of global environmental change has been the driver towards more realistic models embracing the variability and uncertainties inherent in ecology. Statistical ecology has gelled over the past decade as a discipline that moves away from describing patterns towards modelling the ecological processes that generate these patterns. Following the fourth International Statistical Ecology Conference (1-4 July 2014) in Montpellier, France, we analyse current trends in statistical ecology. Important advances in the analysis of individual movement, and in the modelling of population dynamics and species distributions, are made possible by the increasing use of hierarchical and hidden process models. Exciting research perspectives include the development of methods to interpret citizen science data and of efficient, flexible computational algorithms for model fitting. Statistical ecology has come of age: it now provides a general and mathematically rigorous framework linking ecological theory and empirical data.
authors.affiliation: CEFE UMR 5175, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, EPHE, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France olivier.gimenez@cefe.cnrs.fr.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gimenez
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9LZ, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Buckland
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NF, UK.
authors.forename: Byron J T
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: IRD, UMR EME 212, Sète, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bez
authors.affiliation: IRD, UMR EME 212, Sète, France.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bertrand
authors.affiliation: CEFE UMR 5175, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, EPHE, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: Rémi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Choquet
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, F-69000, Lyon; Université Lyon 1; CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de 18 Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, F-69622, Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dray
authors.affiliation: AgroParisTech, UMR MIA 518, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Pierre
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Etienne
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fewster
authors.affiliation: Irstea, UR EFNO, Centre de Nogent-sur-Vernisson, 45290 Nogent-sur-Vernisson, France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gosselin
authors.affiliation: Université Montpellier 2, UMR EME 212, Sète, France.
authors.forename: Bastien
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mérigot
authors.affiliation: INRA, BioSP, Avignon, France.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Monestiez
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio Ecotono, CRUB, INIBIOMA-CONICET, Bariloche, Argentina.
authors.forename: Juan M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7269-7490
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.affiliation: UPR Bsef, CIRAD, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mortier
authors.affiliation: UM2, UMR AMAP, Bd de la Lironde, TA A-51/PS2, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Munoz
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Otso
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ovaskainen
authors.affiliation: UMR 7204 CNRS UPMC, Centre for Ecology and Conservation Sciences, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 55-61 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France Mathematical Ecology Research Group, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pavoine
authors.affiliation: CEFE UMR 5175, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, EPHE, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pradel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Landscape and Plant Ecology, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Schurr
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9LZ, UK.
authors.forename: Len
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, UMR CNRS 5553, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble I, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Thuiller
authors.affiliation: Ifremer, Rue de l'île d'Yeu, BP 21105, 44311 Nantes Cedex 3, France.
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Trenkel
authors.affiliation: Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Perry
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Valpine
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9LZ, UK.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rexstad
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D004463:Ecology; D015233:Models, Statistical
keywords: citizen science; hidden Markov model; hierarchical model; movement ecology; software package; spatially explicit capture–recapture; species distribution modelling; state–space model