Deterministic chaоs and the problem of predictability in population dynamics

Abstract

The studies of the processes that can significantly influence the predictability in population dynamics are reviewed and the results of mathematical simulations of population dynamics are compared to the time series obtained in field observations. Considerable attention is given to the chaotic changes in population abundance. Some methods of numerical analysis of chaoticity and predictability of the time series are considered. The importance of comparing the results of mathematical simulation and observation data is tightly linked to problems in detecting chaos in the dynamics of natural populations and estimating the prevalence of chaotic regimes in nature. Insight into these problems can allow identification of the functional role of chaotic regimes in population dynamics.