2019 Elsevier B.V. In this chapter, we reflect upon the practice of integrating existing models, rather than developing our own model, to address our objective. This is a practice that has existed since the earliest days of ecological modeling, but is a practice that is expanding rapidly with the aid of ever-accelerating advances in computer technology. We hasten to note the distinction between what we will refer to as integrated models and what we will refer to as integral models. Integrated models, which are the focus of this chapter, result from integration (quantitative coupling) of models that originally were developed independently of one another. Integral models, for the purposes of avoiding confusion in this chapter, we define as models that are custom-built from scratch, which may or may not consist of integrated, multidisciplinary components. That is, if they do consist of multidisciplinary components, integration begins during formulation of the conceptual model.
