BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

STABILITY (Lotka-Volterra model of) 2)

← Back

C. HOLLING evaluates this model in the following way: "… the familiar LOTKA – VOLTERRA model includes the simplest and least realistic (terms), in which death of prey is caused only by predators, predation is a linear function of the product of prey and predator populations, and growth of the predator population is linearly proportional to the same product. This model generates neutral stability…, but the assumptions are very unrealistic since very few components are included, there are no explicit lags or spatial elements, and thresholds, limits and nonlinearities are missing" (1976, p.75-6).

In any case, LOTKA and VOLTERRA's work has been a pioneering one. Its critique led precisely to the study of the aspects emphasized by HOLLING and contributed to the emergence of the concepts of attractors, stability and chaos, as well as to a better understanding of the nature and importance of nonlinearity.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint