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Dryad

Data from: Emergent global patterns of ecosystem structure and function from a mechanistic General Ecosystem Model

Cite this dataset

Harfoot, Michael Brian James et al. (2015). Data from: Emergent global patterns of ecosystem structure and function from a mechanistic General Ecosystem Model [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5m96v

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities are causing widespread degradation of ecosystems worldwide, threatening the ecosystem services upon which all human life depends. Improved understanding of this degradation is urgently needed to improve avoidance and mitigation measures. One tool to assist these efforts is predictive models of ecosystem structure and function that are mechanistic: based on fundamental ecological principles. Here we present the first mechanistic General Ecosystem Model (GEM) of ecosystem structure and function that is both global, and applies in all terrestrial and marine environments. Functional forms and parameter values were derived from the theoretical and empirical literature where possible. Simulations of the fate of all organisms with body masses between 10 µg and 150,000 kg (a range of 14 orders of magnitude) across the globe led to emergent properties at individual (e.g. growth rate), community (e.g. biomass turnover rates), ecosystem (e.g. trophic pyramids) and macro-ecological scales (e.g. global patterns of trophic structure) that are in general agreement with current data and theory. These properties emerged from our encoding of the biology of, and interactions among, individual organisms without any direct constraints on the properties themselves. Our results indicate that ecologists have gathered sufficient information to begin to build realistic, global and mechanistic models of ecosystems, capable of predicting a diverse range of ecosystem properties and their response to human pressures.

Usage notes

Location

26E
-87.85E
-2.33N
33.75N
31.92N
-33.5N
-66.5E
-1.95E
44N
Global
-45.5E
54N
-25.5N
70N
-109.141E
-122.5E
42.5N
0N
-93.2E
-156.766E
52.5N
37N
18.5N
35.93N
34.57E
57.33N
-119.5E
-118.8E
-75.96E
0.5E
45.41N
24.85E
32.5E
-84.32E
-34.13N
6.9E