Two Cellular Automata Designed for Ecological Problems: Mendota CA and Barro Colorado Island CA

Our world is changing at an unprecedented rate and we need to understand the nature of the change and to make predictions about the way in which it might affect systems of inter‐ est. In order to address questions about the impact of environmental change, and to under‐ stand what might be done to mitigate the predicted negative effects, ecologists need to develop the ability to project models into novel, future conditions. This will require the de‐ velopment of models based on understanding the (dynamical) processes that result in a sys‐ tem behaving the way it does. The majority of current ecological models are excellent at describing the way in which a system has behaved, but they are poor at predicting its future state, especially in novel conditions [1].