Testing a mechanistic general model of global ecosystems: improving prediction by increasing simplicity?

The Madingley Model was developed as the first general ecosystem model, (GEM), which has a mechanistic basis and is able to be applied to both terrestrial and marine environments. It utilises small-scale events, (e.g. deaths), to make predictions for patterns at the ecosystem scale. Several of the predictions made by the Madingley Model are observed in empirical data, whilst other predictions raise interesting questions regarding ecological processes.