Computational ecology as an emerging science

Abstract

It has long been recognized that numerical modelling and computer simulations can be used as a powerful research tool to understand, and sometimes to predict, the tendencies and peculiarities in the dynamics of populations and ecosystems. It has been, however, much less appreciated that the context of modelling and simulations in ecology is essentially different from those that normally exist in other natural sciences. In our paper, we review the computational challenges arising in modern ecology in the spirit of computational mathematics, i.e. with our main focus on the choice and use of adequate numerical methods. Somewhat paradoxically, the complexity of ecological problems does not always require the use of complex computational methods. This paradox, however, can be easily resolved if we recall that application of sophisticated computational methods usually requires clear and unambiguous mathematical problem statement as well as clearly defined benchmark information for model validation. At the same time, many ecological problems still do not have mathematically accurate and unambiguous description, and available field data are often very noisy, and hence it can be hard to understand how the results of computations should be interpreted from the ecological viewpoint. In this scientific context, computational ecology has to deal with a new paradigm: conventional issues of numerical modelling such as convergence and stability become less important than the qualitative analysis that can be provided with the help of computational techniques. We discuss this paradigm by considering computational challenges arising in several specific ecological applications.

Some analytical and numerical approaches to understanding trap counts resulting from pest insect immigration

“…Eqs. (31)(32). This gives the overall view of the solution properties and helps to better understand the trap count behavior, e.g.…”

Predicted Land Carbon Dynamics Are Strongly Dependent on the Numerical Coupling of Nitrogen Mobilizing and Immobilizing Processes: A Demonstration with the E3SM Land Model

“…;Nguyen et al 2009;Phillips 1956;Sandu 2001;Tang et al 2015;Wan et al 2013Wan et al , 2017. However, this issue is rarely mentioned in land biogeochemistry model development and only occasionally mentioned in the related field of computational ecology (Petrovskii and Petrovskaya 2012).…”

Sensitivity analysis of Repast computational ecology models with R/Repast

“…It is based on the construction of predictive and explanatory models as well as the quantitative description and analysis of ecological data (Helly, Case, Davis, Levin, & Michener, 1995; Petrovskii et al., 2012). The continuous growth of computational power available for and end users, the existence of tools, and the constant increment of empirical data available makes viable for many scientists to develop and simulate tremendously complex models from their desktops.…”