Adjunct Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The University of Arizona

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

215A Biological Sciernces East

The University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ 85721

Office: (520) 621-7295

FAX: (520) 626-5370

E-mail: rfc@u.arizona.edu

• B.S. (Biology) 1963, University of New Hampshire
• M.S. (Population Genetics) 1965, Purdue University
• Ph.D. (Population Genetics) 1967, Purdue University

One of the key predictions emerging from nonlinear ecological modelling is that populations will undergo transitions among behaviors associated with different attractors in response to changing conditions. The interdisciplinary research team of Dr. R.F. Costantino and collaborators Drs. R.A. Desharnais, Brian Dennis, J.M. Cushing and Shandelle Henson has demonstrated that the observed fluctuations of a stage-structured population system could be explained and closely forecasted by a low-dimensional nonlinear model. In response to their experimental manipulations of control parameters, the flour beetle system displayed the bifurcations and attractor behaviors (equilibria, period cycles, aperiodic cycles, and chaos) predicted by the model. The results point the way to a heightened level of relevance of nonlinear mathematics in population biology.

• Desharnais, R.A., Costantino, R.F., Cushing, J.M., Henson, S.M., Dennis, B. 2001.  Chaos and population control of insect outbreaks.  Ecology Letters 4: 229-235.

• Dennis, B., Desharnais, R.A., Cushing, J.M., Henson, S.H., and Costantino, R.F. 2001.  Estimating chaos and complex dynamics in an insect population.  Ecological Monographs 71: 277-303.

• Cushing, J.M., Henson, S.M., Desharnais, R.A., Dennis, B., Costantino, R.F., and King, A. 2001.  A chaotic attractor in ecology: theory and data.   Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 12: 219-234.

• Henson, S.M., Costantino, R.F., Cushing, J.M., Dennis, B., and Desharnais, R.A. 1999.  Multiple attractors, saddles and population dynamics in periodic habitats.  Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 61: 1121-1149.

• Costantino, R.F., Cushing, J.M., Dennis, B., Desharnais, R.A., and Henson, S.M. 1998.  Resonant population cycles in temporally fluctuating habitats.   Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 60: 247-273.

• Costantino, R.F., Desharnais, R.A., Cushing, J.M., and Dennis, B. 1997.   Chaotic dynamics in an insect population.  Science 275: 389-391.

• The Beetle Website
• ESA Workshop on Chaos in Ecology