About this Research Topic

Background

Research on large spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity has increasingly employed mechanistic or process-based models, complementing the more traditional phenomenological approach. Exciting progress has been made with several modeling strategies including - but certainly not restricted to - conceptual, mathematical, individual-based, cross-scale, and hierarchical models. Such models are very often at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary research and are aimed at explaining biodiversity dynamics based on (any combinations of) organismal physiology and behavior, population dynamics, quantitative genetics, species interactions, species distribution and diversity, diversification dynamics, trait evolution and diversity, environmental changes, among other subjects. The innovation brought by this recent rise of mechanistic models in macroecology has not only improved the inferential and predictive capacity of the field but also opened up new avenues for advancing macroecological research, which will be highlighted in papers under this Research Topic.

The objective of this Research Topic is to assemble up-to-date research papers on a variety of modeling approaches that may contribute to a mechanistic understanding of macroecological and macroevolutionary patterns. We hope to highlight the advance in employing mechanistic models in disentangling the complex processes and their drivers of biodiversity dynamics in space and time. In particular, we wish to showcase studies that build upon mechanistic models in conjunction with empirical data as an integrative approach to explain and predict ecological patterns at the macroscale. We also encourage the presentation of novel modeling techniques and tools, critical assessments of existing methods, and perspectives and reviews on specific aspects under the broader topic of mechanistic models in macroecology and macroevolution.

We welcome different types of manuscripts that employ mechanistic models for modeling eco-evolutionary patterns across large scales, including:
(i) regional to global distributions of biodiversity
(ii) From deep-time to recent, and future dynamics
(iii) Species and/or higher-taxa diversity and turnover
(iv) The evolution of trait variation and diversity
(v) The complex impact of environmental changes
(vi) Methodological innovation and tool development in macroecological and macroevolutionary models
(vii) Integrative models that combine theories from multiple disciplines, such as ecology, paleobiology, biogeography, physiology, quantitative genetics, etc.
(viii) Particular emphasis is given to integrating/connecting model output to empirical patterns

Keywords: macroecology, macroevolution, mechanistic models, process-based models, biogeography

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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