Novel challenges and opportunities in the theory and practice of matrix population modelling

Demography is at the core of ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. The simple recognition that individuals in a given population contribute to its dynamics in different ways revolutionised the ways in which demographers approach data collection, analyses, and interpretation of their study populations, from bacteria to humans. Matrix population models, discrete-time, discrete-state (i.e. individuals are categorised into discrete categories based on traits such as age or stage), were first introduced to the scientific community by Patrick Leslie 75 years ago. Since then, the applications of matrix population models to ecology, evolution, and conservation biology have strongly been running strong and in parallel with its robust mathematical development. This special feature contains 14 novel contributions that represent some the cutting-edge mathematical formulations and applications of this powerful demographic tool. In addition to highlighting the key contributions of this manuscripts, we provide suggestions to some of the challenges that researchers using matrix population models must overcome in the coming decades to truly unlock the potential of this analytical demographic tool