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Space and Time in Ecology: Noise or Fundamental Driver?

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Spatial Complexity, Informatics, and Wildlife Conservation

Abstract

In this chapter I frame the central issue of the book, namely is spatial and temporal complexity in ecological systems merely noise around the predictions of non-spatial, equilibrium processes? Or, alternatively, do spatial and temporal variability in the environment and autogenic space—time processes in populations fundamentally alter system behavior such that ideal models of nonspatial and equilibrium processes do not represent the fundamental dynamics of ecological systems?

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  1. Samuel A. Cushman
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Correspondence to Samuel A. Cushman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 800 E Beckwith, Missoula, MT, 59801, USA

    Samuel A. Cushman

  2. EWHALE lab- Biology and Wildlife Department, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, 419 IRVING I, Fairbanks, AK, 99775-7000, USA

    Falk Huettmann

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Cushman, S.A. (2010). Space and Time in Ecology: Noise or Fundamental Driver?. In: Cushman, S.A., Huettmann, F. (eds) Spatial Complexity, Informatics, and Wildlife Conservation. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-87771-4_2

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