Estimation of parameters in biological species with several mating and reproduction alternatives.

With the purpose of modeling the demographic dynamics of biological species in which different mating and reproduction alternatives are feasible, in Molina et al. (2014) we introduced a new mathematical model based on discrete-time branching processes. Assuming that the reproduction phase is governed by probability distributions belonging to the power series family, some reproductive parameters for such species were estimated. In this work, in a more general statistical context, we generalize this research. By considering observations, until a given generation, of the number of female and male individuals in each generation, we now investigate several inferential questions about the parameters of biological interest included in the mathematical model. We study such questions using procedures based on Bayesian statistical methodology. We apply the proposed methods to describe the dynamics of salmonid species. • Stochastic modeling of biological species through branching models is investigated. • Under a general statistical setting, several inferential questions of biological interest are studied. • Approximate Bayesian Computation methods are applied to estimate the biological parameters involved in the probability model. • An application to salmonid populations is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]