Innovations in data integration for modeling populations.

Assessing the status of species in the Anthropocene requires an understanding of basic ecological processes affecting population dynamics and the impacts of ongoing climate and environmental changes. Various combinations of forces and their feedbacks drive species distributions and abundances across large spatial and temporal scales, which can be a challenge to analyze with traditional ecological tools. Evaluating the relative effects of these forces on population dynamics is often difficult because data are insufficient and/or comprised of disparate types. A fundamental challenge of population ecology is to detect species trends, extrapolate inference across spatio-temporal scales, and create credible projections of dynamics and viability. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.