The field of Geo-ecology is where rock, soil, water, atmosphere and life interact. The research of Computational Geo-Ecology is especially focussed on interactions between biotic and abiotic components. How does the abiotic environment influence the behaviour of species and their temporal and spatial distributions? How do plants and animals influence or manipulate the abiotic properties and processes at the earth surface? The main difference with other groups within IBED is that CGE mainly uses massive data sets and computational methods as a means to answer this type of questions. Many of these methods originate from mathematics, statistics, informatics and computational science and related branches of science. However, modifications and extensions are often required to make the techniques suitable for application in geo-ecologial research.
The CGE approach is based on a philosophy that models and measurements must be balanced in a mutually beneficial exchange: "what can we learn from measurements, from modelling, and from the combination of both?". This generates the need for the development and use of Virtual Laboratories for data exploration, data analyses and modelling.
The awareness of the spatial and temporal heterogeneities, of the mismatch between the support of measurements and the true scales at which non-linear feed-back mechanisms operate, and of the error propagation with the use of models that combine processes or patterns with different scales, leads to the following scientific challenges:
- to contribute, through modelling, to the description, understanding, and predictability of the dynamics of geo-ecosystems, including interactions between biota and the abiotic environment
- to link theoretical models of complex geo-ecosystems with field observations and remotely sensed data
- to demonstrate and improve the added value of GIS and spatial modelling techniques for the analysis of patterns and processes in geo-ecological research
- to develop and apply eScience environments for data exploration, data analyses and the confrontation of models with measurements.
- to develop and improve remote sensing and animal tracking technologies to collect dedicated data sets at a high frequency and with a large coverage
These scientific challenges help to shape the research programme and to direct it towards the ultimate goal, which is to understand the functioning of geo-ecosystems.
