Ecological models supporting environmental decision making: a strategy for the future.

Area of Science:

• Environmental science
• Ecological modeling

Background:

• Ecological models are crucial for environmental decision support.
• Current ecological modeling practices are unsatisfactory and widely ignore best practices.
• Reasons for poor practice include lack of decision-maker involvement, insufficient incentives for modelers, and inconsistent terminology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the shortcomings in current ecological modeling practices.
• To propose a standardized documentation format for ecological models and their analyses.

Main Methods:

• Literature review to identify elements of good modeling practice.
• Analysis of reasons why good practices are ignored.
• Proposal of a new documentation standard: Transparent and Comprehensive Ecological Modeling (TRACE) documentation.

Main Results:

• Key elements of good ecological modeling practice have been identified but are not consistently applied.
• Lack of decision-maker involvement, incentives, and standardized terminology contribute to poor modeling practices.
• The proposed TRACE documentation standard offers a solution for improved transparency and coherence.

Conclusions:

• Adoption of the TRACE documentation standard can enhance the reliability and efficiency of ecological modeling.
• Standardized documentation will allow for greater scrutiny of the entire modeling process.
• TRACE documentation aims to improve the overall quality and utility of ecological models for environmental decision-making.