Pedagog: Software for Simulating Eco-evolutionary Population Dynamics

pedagog is a Windows program that can be used to determine power for, and validate inferences drawn from, eco-evolutionary studies. It models dynamics of multiple populations and their interactions through individual-based simulations while simultaneously recording genotype, pedigree and trait information at the individual level. pedagog also allows for specification of heritable traits, natural and sexual selection acting upon those traits, population sampling schemes and incorporation of genetic and demographic errors into the output. Overall, parameters can be specified for genetic diversity, demographics, mating design, genetic and demographic errors, individual growth models, trait heritability and selection, and output formatting. Demographic parameters can be either age or function based, and all parameters can be drawn from 12 statistical distributions where appropriate. Simulation results can be automatically formatted for 57 existing software programs to facilitate postsimulation analyses. pedagog is freely available for download at https://bcrc.bio.umass.edu/pedigreesoftware/.