title: Chaos in easter island ecology.
abstract: This paper demonstrates that a recently proposed dynamical model for the ecology of Easter Island admits periodic and chaotic attractors, not previously reported. Such behavior may more realistically depict the population dynamics of general ecosystems and illustrates the power of simple models to produce the kind of complex behavior that is ubiquitous in such systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1390, USA. sprott@physics.wisc.edu
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Sprott
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004463:Ecology; D004777:Environment; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D006801:Humans; D058865:Introduced Species; D015233:Models, Statistical; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D011114:Polynesia; D011157:Population Dynamics; D051381:Rats; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D014197:Trees