Building simulation models of complex ecological systems by successive composition and reusing simulation experiments

With an increasing demand to manage biological resources even when the supporting systems undergo significant changes there is great need for ecological models which take into account all system levels relevant to the resource. However, the large ecological models rising to this challenge require expertise from, at times, quite distinct branches of science. Therefore, rather than tasking a single individual or working group to expand models beyond their area of expertise, fusing smaller submodels into large complex ones appears as a natural way forward. We propose to ensure the semantic validity of the fused models by carefully interlinking composition and validation steps exploiting earlier simulation experiments. A simulation model of the cod in the Baltic sea will elucidate the approach as the different aspects of respiration, energy budgets and behaviour are fused and validated as a whole after being modeled and validated individually.