A MIKE ECO Lab Template contains the mathematical description of the ordinary differential equations to be solved. These could, for example, describe an ecosystem including the processes affecting the ecosystem.
A MIKE ECO Lab template contains six components:
· State Variables - State variables represent the state that the user wants to predict (at least one state variable must be specified).
· Constants - Constants are used as arguments in the mathematical expressions of processes in a MIKE ECO Lab model. They are constant in time, but can vary in space.
· Forcings - Forcings are used as arguments in the mathematical expression of processes in a MIKE ECO Lab model. They can vary in time and space. They basically represent variables of an external nature that can affect the ecosystem.
· Auxiliary Variables - Auxiliary Variables are arguments in the mathematical expression in a MIKE ECO Lab model. They can be used as intermediate calculations that can include any state variable, constant or forcing. They can also be used to specify results directly.
· Processes - Processes describe the transformations that affect the state variables. That means processes are used as arguments in the differential equations that MIKE ECO Lab solves to determine the state of the State Variables.
· Derived Outputs - Derived Outputs are output files that are derived based on the model results.
Additional details on developing MIKE ECO Lab templates is available in the MIKE ZERO ECO Lab manual.
All concentrations passed from MIKE SHE to MIKE ECO Lab are in units of [g/m3], which is equivalent to [mg/L].
Thus all parameters and equations defined in the MIKE ECO Lab template must reflect these units - either directly or via an appropriate scaling factor. For example, the correct units for a decay rate constant might be [g/m3/day] or [mg/L/day].