Linking multi-level population dynamics: state, role, and population

The dynamics of an ecological community can be described at different focal scales of the species, such as individual states or the population level. More detailed descriptions of ecological dynamics offer more information, but produce more complex models that are difficult to analyze. Adequately controlling the model complexity and the availability of multiple descriptions of the concerned dynamics maximizes our understanding of ecological dynamics. One of the central goals of ecological studies is to develop links between multiple descriptions of an ecological community. In this article, starting from a nonlinear state-level description of an ecological community (generalized McKendrick–von Foerster model), role-level and population-level descriptions (Lotka–Volterra model) are derived in a consistent manner. The role-level description covers a wider range of situations than the population-level description. However, using the established connections, it is demonstrated that the population-level description can be used to predict the equilibrium status of the role-level description. This approach connects state-, role-, and population-level dynamics consistently, and offers a justification for the multiple choices of model description.