Question

In the book "Chaos," James Gleick makes a point of showing how little control we have over complex dynamic systems in nature. When we talk about ecological intervention, how accurately can we predict the effect of our actions? Especially complex interactions between species, do we have any control over how they might behave?

Answer 1

Oooh I can't give you an accurate answer right now but most of the time it is 'educated guesses'. We usually do sometimes predict what may happen but often there is a factor that we have overlooked that changes the outcome once again. We do produce mathematical/computational models however the more accurate they are to real life the harder they are to understand and so are also just as hard to predict as nature. Though the more studies people do the more they understand about ecosystem functioning and how a ecosystem may react, however there is still a disturbingly large amount of unpredictability.