MadingleyModell

The Madingley Modell, also known as the Madingley Model, is a process-based, general ecosystem model designed to simulate the structure and functioning of ecosystems from first principles. It represents organisms not as cataloged species but as cohorts defined by functional traits, enabling the study of broad ecological patterns and energy flows across scales. The model aims to reproduce emergent properties of ecosystems such as trophic networks, biomass distributions, and carbon fluxes without relying on predefined species inventories.

The model uses a spatially explicit framework in which the landscape is divided into grids. Organisms are grouped into functional types based on traits such as body mass, trophic role (producer, herbivore, omnivore, carnivore), and reproduction strategy. Key processes include metabolism and growth, feeding and predation, reproduction, mortality, and dispersal. Interactions among cohorts generate community structure, diet breadth, and energy transfer across trophic levels, yielding emergent ecological patterns.

Inputs to the Madingley Modell typically include environmental drivers such as temperature, precipitation, and primary productivity, as well as land cover or habitat data. Outputs cover biomass and energy budgets by functional group and size class, functional diversity metrics, and predicted responses to environmental change. The model is used to explore macroecological questions, test theories of biodiversity and ecosystem function, and assess potential impacts of climate change or land-use scenarios at regional to global scales.

Limitations include simplifications of ecological processes, uncertainties in parameterization, and computational demands. Ongoing work seeks to improve process realism, validation against empirical data, and integration with larger Earth-system modelling efforts.