Criticality and scaling in evolutionary ecology

Fluctuations in ecological systems are known to involve a wide range of spa tial and temporal scales, often displaying self similar (fractal) propertie s. Recent theoretical approaches are trying to shed light on the nature of these complex dynamics. The results suggest that complexity in ecology and evolution comes from the network-like structure of multispecies communities that are close to instability. If true, these ideas might change our under standing of how complexity emerges in the biosphere and how macroevolutiona ry events could be decoupled from microevolutionary ones.