31 March 2017
In 1847 Karl Bergmann first predicted that animal body size increases with latitude and elevation. Specifically, he suggested that a smaller surface-area-to-volume ratio in larger bodied species was an advantageous heat conservation strategy for colder climates. Over the years this ecogeographic principle has become one of the best-known generalisations in...
20 January 2017
The Madingley model is unique in its ability to mechanistically model whole terrestrial ecosystems. However, its focus has been animal ecology. Complex animal ecosystems are usually embedded and essentially build on the presence of terrestrial vegetation, nutrient and water cycling processes. Changes in the latter necessarily will have impacts on...
16 November 2016
Madingley is a global computational model. To a broad approximation, the Madingley model represents all (most) forms of life. It achieves this by using what’s called a functional-type representation. Species are aggregated in to broad categories that describe a select number of their properties, rather than everything about them. For...
12 October 2016
Madingley’s focus at its conception – and first appearance in the academic arena – was an effort to model ‘all life on earth’. An exciting endeavour and something any recently-graduated, aspiring PhD student would jump to be involved in. Cue my entrance three years ago. The reasonable success of Madingley’s...