This course is only available through the Semester in Environmental Science program at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
This course is an introduction to dynamic simulation modeling of ecological systems. We examine the role of models in science, the relationship of models to scientific theories, and methods for their application, for example to predict long-term ecosystem responses to global change and eutrophication. In a series of class exercises, the students will apply the concept of mass balance to simulate population and community dynamics and the biogeochemistry of ecosystems. Each student will develop their own computer model of an ecological system of interest to them and write a term paper based on an analysis with their model.