Agent-based simulations improve abundance estimation

Abundance is a fundamental characteristic of every biological population and is the focus of many research programs in ecology and conservation. In this paper I give an overview of the challenges of estimating abundance. I argue that truly understanding, validating, and refining the field techniques and quantitative methods used to estimate abundance can largely benefit from agent-based simulations. I illustrate this through the example of bird point counts and introduce the software bSims to test statistical and biological assumptions for estimating abundance and to aid survey design.