We organized a specialized course about Modelling aquatic ecosystems with Ecopath, Ecosim and Ecospace at the Institute of Marine Science (ICM-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain, from 30 May – 3 June 2016.

Teachers: Marta Coll, Villy Christensen, Isabel Palomera and Jeroen Steenbeek

Location: ICM-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

This course introduced basic concepts and modelling procedures of aquatic ecosystems. Participants were provided with the principles behind EwE (www.ecopath.org), and how to design, parameterize and analyze an ecological model with Ecopath. Introductory concepts of the temporal module Ecosim and the spatial-temporal module Ecospace were presented.

We participated as teachers in a specialized course about the basic use of Ecopath with Ecosim.

Location: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Do Norte (Brazil, Natal)

Dates: 14-18 September 2015

Teachers: Marta Coll, Jeroen Steenbeek, Ronaldo Angelini (UFRN)

This basic course of the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) modeling approach introduced the current capabilities of the EwE desktop software (www.ecopath.org). Besides an introduction to the foundation of the EwE approach and a discussion of basic parameterizations, we introduced advanced features for parameterization of EwE models through online databases such as FishBase and WoRMS.

Advanced features of Ecosim, such as fitting models to data, and driving models with external drivers, were discussed. The origin

al Ecospace model and the new habitat capacity model were introduced. Finally, an introduction how to program with the EwE source code was demonstrated. The course was structured between presentations and computer time. Local participants were invited to use their own models for the course. Participants by video conference attended the lectures. Lectures were given mostly during the morning.

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