Forecasting ecological dynamics

A Royal Society discussion meeting examining whether ecological systems can be accurately forecast, including via machine learning approaches.

This Royal Society discussion meeting, organised by Dr Emily G Simmonds, Dr Marlène Gamelon, Professor Tim Coulson and Professor Bernt-Erik Sæther, tackles the poor record of ecologists in predicting ecosystem dynamics. Ecosystems contain thousands of interacting species also shaped by external forces such as climate, yet effective biodiversity management and conservation arguably depend on accurate prediction. The meeting asks whether the goal of accurately forecasting living systems should be abandoned, or whether novel approaches including machine learning can succeed. It runs over two days at the Royal Society in London.