It is impossible to predict the exact behavior of all biological systems and how these same systems are exemplified by patterns of complexity and regularity. Decades of research in ecology have documented how these sorts of patterns are the consequences of deceptively simple rules that determine the nature of the patterns created. Chaos in Ecology will explain how simple beginnings result in complicated results.

Chaos in Ecology is the inaugural volume of Theoretical Ecology Series. The authors of this volume have employed data from a proven model system in population...

The study of populations is becoming increasingly focused on dynamics. We believe there are two reasons for this trend. The ftrst is the impactof nonlinear dynamics with its exciting ideas and colorful language: bifurcations, domains of attraction, chaos, fractals, strange attractors. Complexity, which is so very much a part of biology, now seems to be also a part of mathematics. A second trend is the accessibility of the new concepts. Thebarriers tocommunicationbetween theoristandexperimentalistseemless impenetrable. The active participationofthe experimentalist means that the theory will...