Read more
Decades of research in ecology have documented how patterns of complexity and regularity are the consequences of deceptively simple rules that determine the nature of the patterns created. This book explains how simple beginnings result in complicated results. It includes data from a proven model system in population dynamics.
List of contents
Introduction
Models
Bifurcations
Chaos
Patterns in Chaos
What We Learned
Report
"The authors have made very circumspect model verifications...The greatest merit of the book is that it confirms experimentally the existence of numerous nonlinear phenomena in populations and presents a new characteristic of populations, that is, the lattice effect. The book is written in an excellent style with high mathematical precision. This work is warmly recommended to all theoretical and field ecologists, and all scientists interested in nonlinear dynamics." --COMMUNITY ECOLOGY, 2005
"...rich in statistical concepts and methods. Anyone interested in the dynamics of populations will benefit from reading this book." --ECOLOGY, 2003
"In a very real sense, Cushing et al. have done for ecology what Newton did for physics. They have demonstrated that the observed, very complex behavior of biological populations can, at least in principle, be derived and predicted from a knowledge of the operant biological mechanisms expressed in simple mathematical models. ...Chaos in Ecology is a road-map for making ecology into a genuinely predictive science." --Aaron A. King, University of Tennessee, 2002
"This is the definitive source on chaos in ecology. Well-written and authoritative." --Simon Levin, Princeton University, 2002
"Chaos in Ecology ought to be read by both field and theoretical ecologists." --COMPLEX SYSTEMS LAB, BARCELONA SPAIN