Marine mammals face multiple, serious, even existential threats. Agent-based models (ABMs) are a powerful tool particularly well suited to conservation biology since they include individual, independent agents that interact with each other and the environment. Incorporating behaviors and behavioral/physiological variability among individuals is especially important in marine mammal conservation if we wish to understand and predict impacts of human disturbance on wildlife populations. ABMs are bottoms-up models; the system-wide and population-level behaviors emerge from interactions of each agent with each other and the environment per a behavioral rule set. I will describe two ABMs of very different marine mammals that highlight their flexibility in marine mammal conservation: Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) threatened by reduced prey and increasing anthropogenic noise, and Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) in the Indian River Lagoon losing seagrass and warm water refuges. These first-of-their-kind simulations quantify the effects of these anthropogenic threats and enable mitigation policy testing “in silico” to gauge results and support management decisions.
Scott Myers
Dr. Graham Worthy, Advisor
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