Can microscopic models for age-structured populations contribute to ecology?

Since its original proposal in 1995, the bit-string model has been used to study diverse aspects and situations concerning the evolutionary theory of aging. In this work, we follow a different path: we show two examples where simple age-structured population models are able of making predictions (on e of them of particular interest to lobster catchers including those from B razilian Northeast) and to evaluate the impact due to induced changes on an ecological environment. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.