The Lotka-Volterra equation may do a wonderful job of explaining simple predator-prey relationships, but it assumes exponential growth of the prey population, which is exactly what I’m disputing.
I’ve got a book somewhere (small trade paperback, dull silver cover[1], title might be Life) which claims that no one has ever gotten those pretty predator-prey equations to cycle nicely in the real world, not even with two species of micro-organisms in a test tube.
The Wiki page for the equation didn’t seem to mention real-world examples.
I’ll update with more detail if I find the book.
[1] It’s a shame amazon doesn’t have searches based on the way people really remember books.
The Wikipedia page does mention the wolf and moose populations in Isle Royale National Park as its sole real-world example. The paper it cites, though, doesn’t seem to find the LV equation to be among the most useful available models, which is a pretty bad sign for its actual descriptive power.
I’ve got a book somewhere (small trade paperback, dull silver cover[1], title might be Life) which claims that no one has ever gotten those pretty predator-prey equations to cycle nicely in the real world, not even with two species of micro-organisms in a test tube.
With 3 species, the LK equation can become chaotic, so I wouldn’t expect to be able to duplicate a real-world history even if the model were perfect.
Perhaps we could find a 2-species real-world LK case involving bacteria deep underground.
I’ve got a book somewhere (small trade paperback, dull silver cover[1], title might be Life) which claims that no one has ever gotten those pretty predator-prey equations to cycle nicely in the real world, not even with two species of micro-organisms in a test tube.
The Wiki page for the equation didn’t seem to mention real-world examples.
I’ll update with more detail if I find the book.
[1] It’s a shame amazon doesn’t have searches based on the way people really remember books.
The Wikipedia page does mention the wolf and moose populations in Isle Royale National Park as its sole real-world example. The paper it cites, though, doesn’t seem to find the LV equation to be among the most useful available models, which is a pretty bad sign for its actual descriptive power.
With 3 species, the LK equation can become chaotic, so I wouldn’t expect to be able to duplicate a real-world history even if the model were perfect.
Perhaps we could find a 2-species real-world LK case involving bacteria deep underground.
This source claims that some real life examples have actually done this correctly including the archetypal rabbit/lynx example.
Upvoted for your footnote :)