Sensitivity analysis in periodic matrix models: A postscript to Caswell and Trevisan

✍ Scribed by M. Lesnoff; P. Ezanno; H. Caswell

• Book ID: 104351210
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 311 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0895-7177
• DOI: 10.1016/s0895-7177(03)00110-9

✦ Synopsis

Periodic matrix population models are a useful approach to modelling cyclic variations in demographic rates. Caswell and Trevisan [l] introduced the perturbation analysis (sensitivities and elasticities) of the per-cycle population growth rate for such models. Although powerful, their method can be time-consuming when the dimension of the matrices is large or when cycles are composed of many phases. We present a more efficient method, based on a very simple matrix product.

We compared the two methods for matrices of different sizes. We observed a reduction in calculation time on the order of 24% with the new method for a set of 26 within-year Leslie matrices of size 287 x 287. The time saving may become particularly significant when sensitivities are used in Monte Carlo or bootstrap simulations.