WaderMORPH - a user-friendly individual-based model to advise shorebird policy and management.

Abstract

Summary: 1.Conservation objectives for non-breeding shorebirds (waders) are determined from their population size. Individual-based models (IBMs) have accurately predicted mortality rate (a determinant of population size) of these species, and are a tool for advising coastal management and policy. However, due to their complexity, the use of these IBMs has been restricted to specialist modellers in the scientific community, whereas, ideally, they should be accessible to non-specialists with a direct interest in coastal issues. 2.We describe how this limitation has been addressed by the development of WaderMORPH, a user-friendly interface to a shorebird IBM, MORPH, that runs within Microsoft Windows. WaderMORPH hides technical and mathematical details of parameterisation from the user and allows models to be parameterised in a series of simple steps. We provide an overview of WaderMORPH and its range of applications. WaderMORPH, its user guide and an example data set can be downloaded from http://individualecology.bournemouth.ac.uk. © 2010 British Ecological Society.