APPLICATION IPMpack: an R package for integral projectionmodels

1. Structured demographic models offer powerful methods for addressing important questions in ecology and evolution. 2. Integral ProjectionModels (IPMs) are related to classic matrix models, but are more appropriate for model-ling structured populationswhen the variable describing individuals ’ demography is continuous (e.g. size, weight, etc.). 3. Wepresent IPMpack, a free open-source software (R) package for building IPMs. The package estimates key population characteristics from IPMs, such as population growth rate in both deterministic and stochastic envi-ronments, age-specific trajectories of survival and reproduction, and sensitivities and elasticities to changes in underlying vital rates. 4. IPMpack can be used for species across a range of life cycle complexity and can include continuous and dis-crete (e.g. seed bank, hibernation) state variables, as well as environmental covariates of interest. Methods for diagnostics, sensitivity analyses, plotting, model comparison and many other features allow users to move from data input through analysis to inference using an array of internal functions. 5. IPMpack fills a need for readily usable tools for constructing and analysing IPMs and is designed to facilitate their use for experts and open up their use for those researchers who have little experience in the details of popula-tionmodels. A standardized IPMmodelling framework will also facilitate cross-study and cross-species compar-ative demography, encouraging the exploration of broader ecological and evolutionary questions that can be addressed by populationmodels. Key-words: demography, elasticity, integral projectionmodel, passage time, sensitivit