AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING NONLINEAR ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS

We describe a research program which covers a spectrum of activities e ssential to testing nonlinear population theory: from the translation of the biology into the formal language of mathematics, to the analysi s of mathematical models, to the development and application of statis tical techniques for the analysis of data, to the design and implement ation of biological experiments. The statistical analyses, mathematics , and biology are thoroughly integrated. We review several aspects of our current research effort that demonstrate this integration.