Godfray and May 2014 Open questions: are the dynamics of ecological communities predictable?

[MKLau]

• Linearization, Compartmentalization
• Reductionism hasn't provided a framework for responses of systems to perturbations
• Complex systems theory ~ self-organization into subsets of possible system states

[MKLau]

Simplifications and assumptions, what is sometimes (and slightly sneeringly) called the reductionist agenda, have delivered powerful insights into many aspects of ecological dynamics. But they have not provided a general theory of how ecological communities respond to perturbation. Are there alternatives?

[MKLau]

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