title: Chaotic Dynamics in an Insect Population
abstract: A nonlinear demographic model was used to predict the population dynamics of the flour beetle Tribolium under laboratory conditions and to establish the experimental protocol that would reveal chaotic behavior. With the adult mortality rate experimentally set high, the dynamics of animal abundance changed from equilibrium to quasiperiodic cycles to chaos as adult-stage recruitment rates were experimentally manipulated. These transitions in dynamics corresponded to those predicted by the mathematical model. Phase-space graphs of the data together with the deterministic model attractors provide convincing evidence of transitions to chaos.
authors.affiliation: R. F. Costantino, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA. R. A. Desharnais, Department of Biology and Microbiology, California State University, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA. J. M. Cushing, Department of Mathematics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. B. Dennis, Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and Division of Statistics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA.
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Costantino
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Desharnais
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cushing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dennis