Mechanism, Process, and Causation in Ecological Models: A Reply to McGill and Potochnik

Affiliations

¹ Marine Biology and Aquaculture, College of Science & Engineering, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: sean.connolly@jcu.edu.au.
² Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
³ Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA; University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁴ Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK.

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Sean R Connolly et al. Trends Ecol Evol. 2018 May.

Free article

. 2018 May;33(5):305-306.

doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.11.009. Epub 2017 Dec 23.

¹ Marine Biology and Aquaculture, College of Science & Engineering, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: sean.connolly@jcu.edu.au.
² Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
³ Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA; University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁴ Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK.

No abstract available

Keywords: causal models; ecological models; mechanistic models; process-based models.

Comment on

Process, Mechanism, and Modeling in Macroecology.
Connolly SR, Keith SA, Colwell RK, Rahbek C. Connolly SR, et al. Trends Ecol Evol. 2017 Nov;32(11):835-844. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.08.011. Epub 2017 Sep 14. Trends Ecol Evol. 2017. PMID: 28919203 Review.
Mechanisms Are Causes, Not Components: A Response to Connolly et al.
McGill BJ, Potochnik A. McGill BJ, et al. Trends Ecol Evol. 2018 May;33(5):304-305. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.11.010. Epub 2017 Dec 21. Trends Ecol Evol. 2018. PMID: 29275982 No abstract available.