Inverse Modeling in Modern Ecology and Application to Coastal Ecosystems

International audienceQuantitative estimates of energy or material flows within food webs are increasingly viewed as essential to progress on a number of questions in ecosystem science. Inverse analysis has been used since the 1980s to estimate all flows within plankton food webs originally based on incomplete information. Its application to many aquatic environments, including the coastal zone, has led to a variety of methodological improvements. This chapter explains the methodology of inverse modeling and illustrates its application in modern ecosystems ecology. This relatively new approach also provides rigorous statistical comparisons of food web properties across ecosystems. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved