THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF 1/f-NOISES AS MODELS OF ECOLOGICAL VARIABILITY

Abstract

The features of 1/f-noise processes offer important new insights into the field of population biology, greatly helping our quest for understanding and for prediction of ecological processes. 1/f-noises account quite satisfactorily for the observed nature of ecological fluctuations. This article reviews the application of 1/f-noise processes to ecology. After a discussion of the basic problems of population ecology that makes such an innovation necessary, we review the features of 1/f-noises concentrating especially on those aspects that make these processes attractive as a solution. We also present a discussion of the analysis of real ecological data, which confirms that there are good empirical as well as good theoretical reasons to establish a leading role for pink 1/f noise. We then discuss the consequences of such a model for our understanding of ecology. The article finishes with a number of observations about some aspects of ecological data and applications that are likely to drive research in a different direction from that associated with engineering and the physical sciences.