Spatio-temporal modelling of aquatic ecosystems
Ecosystems are known - and admired - for their complexity. This complexity creates a real challenge for capturing the essential dynamics of ecosystems in mathematical models. Such models are considered to be an important tool for understanding ecological complexity and predicting the feasibility and effectiveness of ecological management strategies. A central question I would like to address in this lecture is the question whether the aim of scientific understanding necessarily leads to simpler models and the aim of applicability leads to more complex models with little use for models of intermediate complexity. Or alternatively, that ecological models of intermediate complexity can provide a meeting ground for a healthy exchange of insights and applications between theoretical and applied ecology. In this presentation I will use the established ecosystem model for shallow lakes PCLake as the focal model and show excursions from that model towards simpler and more complex models. A key message will be that there is much to learn from the concurrent use of models that differ in complexity.
