Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) is an ecological modeling software that tracks energy flow through food webs using functional groups and relatively few input parameters. It has been in development for 30 years and can model both natural environments and human impacts. The software faces challenges because ecosystems are complex with feedback effects across scales, but the models can still provide useful insights despite uncertainties, especially around climate change and human impacts. The developer thanked the audience and provided his contact information.

1. Ecopath with Ecosim
Advancing software for ecological forecasting
National Centre for Supercomputing Applications
25 March 2014
Jeroen Steenbeek

2. What is EwE?
• Ecological model that tracks
the paths of energy through a food web
• Functional groups
• Requires relatively few input parameters
• Data often readily available
• Environment and human activities
• Free and open source
• 30 year since first publication
• Written in Microsoft .NET, modular

3. Ecopath with Ecosim

4. Challenges to ecosystem modeling
• Ecosystems are staggeringly complex
• Feedback effects throughout entire system
• Modelled entities span traditional scientific boundaries
• Modelled entities span scales of several orders of magnitude
• Impact interactions are often poorly understood
(climate change, anthropogenic)
“Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful”
- George P. Box (1987)

5. Where we need to go

6. Thank you
jeroen@ecopathinternational.org