Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) provide a deeper understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development has highlighted the need to deploy these complex mechanistic spatial-temporal models to engage policy makers and society into dialogues towards sustainably managed oceans. From our shared perspective, MEMs remain underutilized because they still lack formal validation, calibration, and uncertainty quantifications that undermines their credibility and uptake in policy arenas.
We explore why these shortcomings exist and how to enable the global modelling community to increase MEMs’ usefulness. We identify a clear gap between proposed solutions to assess model skills, uncertainty, and confidence and their actual systematic deployment. We attribute this gap to an underlying factor that the ecosystem modelling literature largely ignores: technical issues. We conclude by proposing a conceptual solution that is cost-effective, scalable and simple, because complex spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling is already complicated enough.
Steenbeek J., Buszowski J., Chagaris D., Christensen V., Coll M., Fulton E.A., Katsanevakis S., Lewis K.A., Mazaris A.D., Macias D., de Mutsert K., Oldford G., Pennino M.G., Piroddi C., Romagnoni G., Serpetti N., Shin Y.-J., Spence M.A. and Stelzenmüller V. (2021) Making spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling better – A perspective. Environmental Modelling & Software 145: 105209. 10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105209
@article{Steenbeek2021,
Title = {Making spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling better – A perspective},
Author = {Steenbeek, Jeroen and Buszowski, Joe and Chagaris, David and Christensen, Villy and Coll, Marta and Fulton, Elizabeth A. and Katsanevakis, Stelios and Lewis, Kristy A. and Mazaris, Antonios D. and Macias, Diego and de Mutsert, Kim and Oldford, Greig and Pennino, Maria Grazia and Piroddi, Chiara and Romagnoni, Giovanni and Serpetti, Natalia and Shin, Yunne-Jai and Spence, Michael A. and Stelzenmüller, Vanessa},
Editor = {},
Journal = {Environmental Modelling & Software},
Year = {2021},
Pages = {105209},
Volume = {145},
Doi = {10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105209},
Abstract = {Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) provide a deeper understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development has highlighted the need to deploy these complex mechanistic spatial-temporal models to engage policy makers and society into dialogues towards sustainably managed oceans. From our shared perspective, MEMs remain underutilized because they still lack formal validation, calibration, and uncertainty quantifications that undermines their credibility and uptake in policy arenas.
We explore why these shortcomings exist and how to enable the global modelling community to increase MEMs’ usefulness. We identify a clear gap between proposed solutions to assess model skills, uncertainty, and confidence and their actual systematic deployment. We attribute this gap to an underlying factor that the ecosystem modelling literature largely ignores: technical issues. We conclude by proposing a conceptual solution that is cost-effective, scalable and simple, because complex spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling is already complicated enough.},
}
TY - JOUR
AU - Steenbeek, Jeroen
AU - Buszowski, Joe
AU - Chagaris, David
AU - Christensen, Villy
AU - Coll, Marta
AU - Fulton, Elizabeth A.
AU - Katsanevakis, Stelios
AU - Lewis, Kristy A.
AU - Mazaris, Antonios D.
AU - Macias, Diego
AU - de Mutsert, Kim
AU - Oldford, Greig
AU - Pennino, Maria Grazia
AU - Piroddi, Chiara
AU - Romagnoni, Giovanni
AU - Serpetti, Natalia
AU - Shin, Yunne-Jai
AU - Spence, Michael A.
AU - Stelzenmüller, Vanessa
TI - Making spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling better – A perspective
T2 - Environmental Modelling & Software
PY - 2021
SP - 105209
VL - 145
DO - 10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105209
AB - Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) provide a deeper understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development has highlighted the need to deploy these complex mechanistic spatial-temporal models to engage policy makers and society into dialogues towards sustainably managed oceans. From our shared perspective, MEMs remain underutilized because they still lack formal validation, calibration, and uncertainty quantifications that undermines their credibility and uptake in policy arenas.
We explore why these shortcomings exist and how to enable the global modelling community to increase MEMs’ usefulness. We identify a clear gap between proposed solutions to assess model skills, uncertainty, and confidence and their actual systematic deployment. We attribute this gap to an underlying factor that the ecosystem modelling literature largely ignores: technical issues. We conclude by proposing a conceptual solution that is cost-effective, scalable and simple, because complex spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling is already complicated enough.
ER -
