The Madingley Model is the first ever attempt to model the biological and ecological interactions of the world’s ecosystems – both on land and in the ocean – for all organisms. It does this by simulating the processes that drive the distribution and abundance of individual organisms. This pioneering initiative aims to prove that the concept of a General Ecosystem Model – similar to the General Circulation Models used by climate change scientists – is viable.

The Madingley Model team has:

• identified the fundamental ecological processes experienced by all species on land and sea
• encoded these processes into mathematical models
• assessed whether the properties of ecosystems predicted by the model agree with observed ecosystems in the real world
• begun to simulate the impact of alternative socio-economic futures on the structure of ecosystems.

The Madingley Model is beginning to inform new avenues of scientific research and will enable investigation of policy questions, but the goal to date has been to demonstrate that building a working General Ecosystem Model is possible. The hope is that this will trigger a shift in biodiversity modelling which will help governments, companies and citizens to better manage the environment.

The Madingley Model is being developed in partnership with Microsoft Research, and is funded by Microsoft Research and UNEP-WCMC.