WHY CHAOS IS RARELY OBSERVED IN NATURAL-POPULATIONS

An attempt has been made to understand why chaotic dynamics have recei ved poor evidential support from held studies. Our study opens up the possibility that the cause of failure might not be poor quality of dat a, as pointed out by earlier authors, but an ecological reality. We ha ve designed two model food chains to examine whether there is a biolog ical basis for the crisis. This investigation is effected with the hel p of a new method which we introduce at an appropriate place in the te xt. The fact that chaos exists in a narrow range of parametric values in both the model systems suggests that the crisis indeed has a biolog ical origin. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.