Evolving to the edge of chaos: Chance or necessity?

We show that ecological systems evolve to edges of chaos (EOC). This has been demonstrated by analyzing three diverse model ecosystems using numerical simulations in combination with analytical procedures. It has been found that all these systems reside on EOC and display short-term recurrent chaos (strc). The first two are non-linear food chains and the third one is a linear food chain. The dynamics of first two is dictated by deterministic changes in system parameters. In contrast to this, dynamics of the third model system (the linear food chain) is governed by both deterministic changes in system parameters as well as exogenous stochastic perturbations (unforeseen changes in initial conditions) of these dynamical systems.