Dear Colleagues,

Adaptation is an essential feature of the interactions between living organisms and their physical environment. Individual organisms learn or acclimate during their lifetime. Ecological competition shapes populations and communities. Genetic variation and natural selection lead to evolutionary changes in how organisms respond to, and have an impact on, their abiotic environments. Since biotic processes are central to the flows of material and energy in ecosystems at all scales, adaptation has, and will continue to have, a major role in the dynamics of ecosystems and the biosphere. Consequently, computational models that seek to predict the responses of ecosystems and/or the Earth system to environmental changes must adequately represent the effects of adaptation.

Traditionally, ecosystem and Earth system models have used fixed representations of biological processes. Recently, models of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and of the Earth system, have begun to include a richer representation of biological processes at a variety of levels. Such models often include some form of adaptation, e.g., physiological acclimation, ecological competition, or evolutionary adaptation. These models have ably captured observed patterns and may form a good basis for improving predictions regarding the impacts of global change.

However, models that include complex adaptive processes present a number of computational challenges. Such models may be difficult to construct, parameterize, and validate. Interpretation of the model’s output can also be challenging. Furthermore, scaling up to high spatial or temporal resolutions may be computationally demanding. Nonetheless, increases in computational power, developments in techniques for the simulation and representation of biological processes at all scales, and the increased availability of large datasets (e.g., from genomics and satellite observations) present a huge opportunity for improving predictive models of ecosystems.

In this Special Issue of Computation, we invite submissions on any aspect of the methodology, use, and scientific basis of computational models of ecosystems (and of the Earth system) that account for adaptive processes. Papers may report on original research, discuss methodological aspects, review the current state of the art (or historical origins), or offer perspectives on future prospects.

Topics might include, but are not restricted to, the following:

• Marine ecosystem models
• Terrestrial ecosystem models
• Soil ecosystem models
• Earth system & biosphere models
• Empirical basis & model validation
• Process-based & mechanistic models
• Impacts of & responses to environmental change
• Trait-based models
• Individual-based or agent-based models
• Adaptive dynamics
• Food web & community models
• Alternative formalisms (e.g., cellular automata, genetic algorithms, digital evolution)
• Systems biology & systems ecology

The aim is to draw together a variety of approaches and application areas, at any spatial and temporal scale, unified around the core concept of representing adaptation (broadly defined) in computational models of ecosystems and of the Earth system. Please contact the editors if you are unsure of your proposed topic’s fit.

Dr James Dyke
Dr. Hywel Williams
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Computation is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.