{ "model": { "rank": 639, "code": "thing-q7150", "model_id": "vr.tr.ecology", "name": "ecology", "purpose": "Let an agent handle ecology as a science with levels, methods and evidence, and connect it to conservation and management.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q7150/", "tier": 2, "score": 228, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "forest ecology", "mangrove ecology", "miombo ecology", "forest canopy ecology", "rainforest ecology", "temperate rainforest ecology", "grassland science", "invasion ecology", "transport ecology", "applied ecology", "ecohydrology", "hydroecology", "Green criminology", "branch of ecology", "landscape ecology", "railroad ecology", "ecological engineering", "agroecology", "astroecology", "aquatic ecology", "landscape science", "canal ecology", "climate change ecology", "bioclimatology", "Mediterranean Landscape Ecology", "ethnoecology", "Milpa", "socioecology", "cultural ecology", "ecological anthropology", "political ecology", "phage ecology", "statistical ecology", "ecological informatics", "brackish water ecology", "vernal pool ecology", "marine and estuarine ecology", "marine ecology", "ecoimmunology", "paleoecology" ], "aliasCount": 211, "merged": 212, "knownIn": 228, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q7150", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7150", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T05:54:40Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q7150", "registryId": "vr.tr.ecology", "name": "ecology", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q7150/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.ecology", "name": "ecology", "purpose": "Let an agent handle ecology as a science with levels, methods and evidence, and connect it to conservation and management.", "definition": "The branch of biology that studies the relationships of organisms with each other and with their environment, from populations to ecosystems and biomes.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding and managing ecosystems.", "affordances": [ "study populations and ecosystems", "monitor biodiversity", "model ecological change", "inform conservation" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Relationships of organisms and environment", "Levels from individuals to biosphere", "Field, experimental and modelling methods", "Distinct from environmentalism as a movement" ], "appearance": "Field studies, data, models and reports; ecosystems themselves are the subject.", "visual_identification": [ "Ecological surveys and datasets", "Subfields such as forest canopy or mangrove ecology", "Environmental impact assessments" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "population ecology", "community ecology", "ecosystem ecology", "landscape ecology", "applied fields such as forest and mangrove ecology" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a branch of", "target": "biology", "why": "discipline" }, { "relation": "studies", "target": "organism, forest, landscape", "why": "subjects" }, { "relation": "informs", "target": "conservation", "why": "application" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "environmentalism", "why": "a movement" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "field classification", "value_or_pattern": "OECD FORD 1.6", "note": "biological sciences" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Environmental impact assessment law", "Biodiversity monitoring standards", "Convention on Biological Diversity" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Overgeneralising from local studies", "Short time series", "Confusing correlation with ecological cause" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "level", "name": "Level", "description": "Which scale.", "rationale": "Level decides questions and methods.", "layers": [ { "id": "organisation", "name": "Level of organisation", "description": "Population to ecosystem.", "findings": [ { "id": "organisation-finding", "name": "Level", "description": "Level studied.", "questions": [ { "text": "At which ecological level is this studied?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which system?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "subfield", "name": "Subfield", "description": "Specialisation.", "findings": [ { "id": "subfield-finding", "name": "Subfield", "description": "Subfield.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which subfield applies?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which methods does it use?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence", "name": "Evidence", "description": "How it is known.", "rationale": "Ecological evidence needs time and replication.", "layers": [ { "id": "data", "name": "Data", "description": "Surveys and experiments.", "findings": [ { "id": "data-finding", "name": "Data", "description": "Data sources.", "questions": [ { "text": "What data support the finding, over what period?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How large was the study area?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] }, { "id": "causation", "name": "Causation", "description": "Drivers.", "findings": [ { "id": "causation-finding", "name": "Drivers", "description": "Causal drivers.", "questions": [ { "text": "What drives the observed change, and how certain is it?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Were confounders considered?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "change", "name": "Change", "description": "Ecosystem change.", "rationale": "Change is the central concern.", "layers": [ { "id": "trends", "name": "Trends", "description": "Biodiversity trends.", "findings": [ { "id": "trends-finding", "name": "Trends", "description": "Trends.", "questions": [ { "text": "What trends are observed?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "From which monitoring programme?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "models", "name": "Models", "description": "Projections.", "findings": [ { "id": "models-finding", "name": "Projections", "description": "Model projections.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do models project, under which scenarios?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How uncertain are they?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "application", "name": "Application", "description": "Conservation and management.", "rationale": "Ecology informs decisions.", "layers": [ { "id": "conservation", "name": "Conservation", "description": "Protection.", "findings": [ { "id": "conservation-finding", "name": "Conservation", "description": "Conservation actions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which conservation actions are supported by evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What trade-offs exist?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "assessment", "name": "Assessment", "description": "Impact assessment.", "findings": [ { "id": "assessment-finding", "name": "Assessment", "description": "Impact assessment.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does the environmental impact assessment conclude?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Was it independent?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should subfields be separate entries?", "How should monitoring data be linked?", "How should agents present ecological uncertainty?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a ecology, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent handle ecology as a science with levels, methods and evidence, and connect it to conservation and management.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: forest ecology, mangrove ecology, miombo ecology, forest canopy ecology, rainforest ecology, temperate rainforest ecology, grassland science, invasion ecology, transport ecology, applied ecology, ecohydrology, hydroecology.", "212 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 228 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a ecology, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "forest ecology", "mangrove ecology", "miombo ecology", "forest canopy ecology", "rainforest ecology", "temperate rainforest ecology", "grassland science", "invasion ecology", "transport ecology", "applied ecology", "ecohydrology", "hydroecology" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 228 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 212 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one ecology from another, and a ecology from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a ecology sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a ecology from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a ecology passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a ecology between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a ecology, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a ecology is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a ecology says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a ecology contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a ecology and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What ecology studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does ecology take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does ecology establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where ecology is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark ecology as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place ecology, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a ecology came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a ecology and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a ecology is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a ecology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a ecology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a ecology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }