Progress in Mathematical Ecology

Mathematical modelling plays a special role in ecology. Although traditional ecology is a largely empirical science, replicated experiments are not often possible because of the high complexity of ecological interactions and the impossibility to reproduce the weather conditions. Moreover, large-scale field experiments (where the consequences are usually not fully known) can be damaging for the ecological communities and costly or even dangerous for humans. Mathematical modelling provides an efficient supplement and sometimes even a substitute to an empirical study; it creates a virtual laboratory where different hypotheses can be tested safely, and at relatively low cost