Chaos was proposed in the 1970s as an alternative explanation for apparently noisy fluctuations in population size. Although readily demonstrated in models, the search for chaos in nature proved challenging and led many to conclude that chaos is either rare or nigh impossible to detect. However, in the intervening half-century, it has become clear that ecosystems are replete with the enabling conditions for chaos. Chaos has been repeatedly demonstrated under laboratory conditions and has been found in field data using updated detection methods. Together, these developments indicate that the apparent rarity of chaos was an artifact of data limitations and overreliance on low-dimensional population models. We invite readers to reevaluate the relevance of chaos in ecology, and we suggest that chaos is not as rare or undetectable as previously believed.

中文翻译：

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重新思考生态学中混沌的普遍性和相关性

混沌现象在 20 世纪 70 年代被提出，作为人口规模明显波动的另一种解释。尽管很容易在模型中得到证明，但事实证明，在自然界中寻找混沌具有挑战性，并导致许多人得出结论：混沌要么很少见，要么几乎不可能被发现。然而，在接下来的半个世纪里，我们已经清楚地认识到，生态系统充满了引发混乱的有利条件。混沌已在实验室条件下被反复证明，并已使用更新的检测方法在现场数据中发现。总之，这些发展表明，混乱的明显罕见是数据限制和过度依赖低维总体模型的产物。我们邀请读者重新评估混沌在生态学中的相关性，并且我们认为混沌并不像以前认为的那样罕见或难以察觉。