A STATISTICAL APPROACH TO DIFFERENCE‐DELAY EQUATION MODELLING IN ECOLOGY–TWO CASE STUDIES1

Abstract

Abstract. In the field of ecology, the importance of delay equations is well recognized. In the field of time series analysis, a new class of non‐linear models has been developed by Tong which exploits explicitly the notion of a delay and a threshold. In this paper, we demonstrate, with real ecological data, how the former may be used to motivate the latter, which in turn lends some support to the former. This paper represents a modest attempt in integrating ecological theory with time series practice.