Concluding Thoughts

At last it's time to judge the models. What sort of field measurements would you want to have in order to choose one over another? Are there any purely mathematical features of the predictions of the models that might help? (One can critique the models on the basis of unreasonable assumptions that might go into their construction--this is a separate matter.) For example, you have surely observed that each of the three models (L-V with unbounded prey growth, L-V with bounded prey growth, and May) exhibits a different possibility for long term behavior. Why is this considered to be such an important aspect of the model? What about sensitivity to initial conditions--how does long term behaviour depend on initial conditions, and what does this mean in terms of actual observation of populations?

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