Recommendations in recent reports of the National Academy of Sciences, the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), and the National Science Board call for improvement in the capability of ecosystem forecasting. There is a need to improve our understanding of how environmental drivers change community structure (biodiversity) and ecosystem function (goods and services). It is very important to understand patterns of ecosystem resilience at a variety of temporal and spatial scale interactions. One avenue of tremendous promise is to improve ways of ecosystem forecasting using more sophisticated modeling techniques. 

Major benefits of ecological forecasts are:

1. improving decisions to sustain ecosystem productivity and lessening the impacts from extreme natural events and human activities;
2. bringing scientists and resource managers together to solve resource management problems;
3. focusing scientific research and monitoring priorities to reduce uncertainties in ecological forecasts; and to forecast recovery rates to increase effectiveness of ecosystem restoration projects.