Randomness reigns in ecology

> The environment is not the only key factor in determining which species will populate a given habitat -- random, stochastic processes may also play a significant role, according to a study published online today (May 27) on the Science Express website. Study author Jonathan Chase, a community ecologist at Washington University in Saint Louis, said: 

> There are environmental factors that create [variations in diversity] -- higher productivity, lower productivity, or disturbed environments and undisturbed environments. Those "deterministic" reasons why species compositions shift from one place to the other [are] kind of what the worldview of much of ecology is about -- 

> But there's an alternative perspective that's really been emerging lately is that randomness can really play a really strong role on occasion in determining which species live where, and that sort of flies in the face of our want to create these rules in ecology. 

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