Chaos in Real Data

Chaos in Real Data studies the range of data analytic techniques available to study nonlinear population dynamics for ecological time series. Several case studies are studied using typically short and noisy population data from field and laboratory. A range of modern approaches, such as response surface methodology and mechanistic mathematical modelling, are applied to several case studies. Experts honestly appraise how well these methods have performed on their data. The accessible style of the book ensures its readability for non-quantitative biologists. The data remain available, as benchmarks for future study, on the worldwide web.

1 Defining chaos for real, noisy data: local Lyapunov exponents and sensitive response to perturbations. - 2 Modelling time-series data. - 3 Measles as a testbed for characterising nonlinear behaviour in ecology. - 4 Population dynamics of small rodents in northern Fennoscandia. - 5 Analysis of population fluctuations in the aphid Hyperomyzus lactucae and the moth Perizoma alchemillata. - 6 One, two and three-species time series from a host-pathogen-parasitoid system. - 7 Blowflies as a case study in non-linear population dynamics. - 8 Overview. - 9 A glossary of terms used in nonlinear dynamics.