INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE

Abstract

This special issue results from the 2005 World Conference on Natural Resource Modeling, which was held at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California from June 14 to 17. This multidisciplinary conference was sponsored by the Resource Modeling Association and provided a forum for new developments in modeling and analysis of natural resource systems, particularly ecological, economic, and management aspects in forestry, fisheries, wildlife, agriculture, ecosystem, and biodiversity conservation, and management of multiple use resources. It continued an annual series of conferences that began with the first Pacific Coast Conference on Natural Resource Modeling held at Humboldt State in 1982. The conference venues have traveled over most of North America, Western Europe, and Australia. The theme for the 2005 World Conference was “Getting the Details Right.” One approach to looking at the detailed dynamics of natural systems is bottom-up modeling. That is, modeling individual life history, the dynamics of the environment as it impacts the individuals, and the way the individuals interact with each other and their environment then studying the emergent behavior. Individual-based models were first attempted in the 1970s with, at best, mixed success resulting from a combination of lack of computing power and suitable software. The development of software frameworks like SWARM, REPAST, and NetLogo and the recent dramatic increases in computing power have made it possible to develop and run realistic individual-based models even on desk-top machines. The individual-based modeling approach is exemplified in the first three papers in this volume. In the lead paper John Goss-Custard develops a shorebird model with real, on-the-ground management implications. This is followed by Chivers, Gladstone, and Herbert's more abstract individual-based model for producer–herbivore interaction, which is one step in the development of a generic individual-based model. Finally, Kanarek, Lamberson, and Black develop an individual-based foraging model to study the importance of learned behavior for successful feeding in a patchy and fluctuating environment. The remaining papers exemplify the breadth of quantitative techniques now being used to study natural resource and ecological questions. The approaches vary from Bayesian statistics to game theory and from partial differential equations to optimal control theory. These and the rest of the papers presented at the 2005 World Conference are a testament to the progress and the vitality of the field of natural resource modeling both in the pursuit of basic ecological principles and on-the-ground resource management decisions.