Compositional approaches to physiologically-based demographic modelling

Abstract

Physiologically-based demographic modelling (PBDM) is a paradigm for mechanistic modelling of crop-pest-human systems. Developed over the course of 50 years, PBDM has contributed to the understanding of how intricate interactions in these systems contribute to the spread of invasive species, the effectiveness of pest control methods, and the adaptation of agroecosystems through climate change. In this talk, we present a collaborative effort which set out to create accessible tools to conduct PBDM analyses, but on the way discovered how thinking in compositional categorical structures opens up PBDM to a new level of accessibility, scalability, and collaboration.