Preview - Modeling Ecosystems Computationally

Comparing With Real Data

Scientists have studied the wolf and moose populations on Isle Royale for decades. This means we have detailed data on how these populations have changed over time. We can see how good our model is by comparing it with these data.  When a scientist ran the model from the last activity with the default settings, they got the graph on the left.  The data from Isle Royale is on the right.
 

Questions

Please answer the questions below.

How is the graph from the model similar to the graph of real population sizes?

How is the graph from the model different from the graph of real population sizes?

Based on this comparison, how good do you think our model is?

Very good
OK
Not good

Explain your answer.

Notes

These notes will appear on every page in this lesson so feel free to put anything here you'd like to keep track of.