Mathematical modelling has a long and rich history in ecology (Kingsland, 1995). Models such as the logistic and the Lotka-Volterra have played a key role in the development of ecological theory and have been termed ‘classical ecological models’. These classical models are characterized by low dimensionality, a focus on finding system equilibria and an interest in temporal, rather than spatial, patterns. Typically, classical equilibrium ecological models have assumed that ecological interactionstake place in a spatially homogeneous environment. The reasons behind the adoption of this view are many, but are largely centred on a desire to keep theoretical and experimental studies relatively simple (Wiens, 1997).
The classical approach to modelling ecological systems ignores space by assuming, at least implicitly, that every individual is equally accessible to every other individual. The resulting model takes the form of a series of difference or differential equations for the mean abundance of the various model elements (e.g. individuals in
a population, etc., different species).