Evaluating consequences of land-use strategies on wildlife populations using multiple-species predictive scenarios

Agricultural activities cause changes to land-use and vegetation characteristics at a smaller temporal scale and at a larger spatial scale than most corresponding natural processes. Simulation models have become important tools to predict future land-use change as a consequence of management policies and in advancing our understanding of the behaviour of complex managed ecosystems. To capture the temporal dynamics and the non-equilibrium properties of agroecosystems and to deal with multidisciplinary trade-offs between economic and conservation interests, it is often necessary for models to be both spatially and temporally explicit and incorporate some component of human decision-making.