Transient Phenomena in Ecology
RESEARCH ◥ a systematic study of transient dynamics in REVIEW SUMMARY ecological systems. As illustrated in the figure, a relatively small number of ideas from dynam- ical systems are used to categorize the differ- ECOLOGY ent ways that transients can arise. Translating these abstract results from dynamical systems Transient phenomena in ecology into observations about both ecological models ◥ and ecological system dy- ON OUR WEBSITE namics, it is possible to un- Alan Hastings*, Karen C. Abbott, Kim Cuddington, Tessa Francis, Gabriel Gellner, Read the full article derstand when transients Ying-Cheng Lai, Andrew Morozov, Sergei Petrovskii, at http://dx.doi. arelikelytooccurandthe Katherine Scranton, Mary Lou Zeeman org/10.1126/ various properties of these science.aat6412 transients, with implica- .................................................. BACKGROUND: Much of ecological theory transient is a persistent dynamical regime— tions for ecosystem man- and the understanding of ecological systems including near-constant dynamics, cyclic dy- agement and basic ecological theory. Transients has been based on the idea that the observed namics, or even apparently chaotic dynamics— can provide an explanation for observed re- states and dynamics of ecological systems can that persists for more than a few and as many gime shifts that does not depend on under- be represented by stable asymptotic behavior as tens of generations, but which is not the sta- lying environmental changes. Systems that of models describing these systems. Beginning ble long-term dynamic that would eventually continually change rapidly between different with early work by Lotka and Volterra through occur. These examples have demonstrated the long-lasting dynamics, such as insect outbreaks, Downloaded from the seminal work of May in the 1970s, this view potential importance of transients but have may most usefully be viewed using the frame- has dominated much of ecological thinking, often appeared to be a set of idiosyncratic work of long transients.
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