abstract
A recent series of papers by CharlesT. Perretti and collaborators have shown that nonparametric
forecasting methods can outperform parametric methods in noisy nonlinear systems. Such a situation
can arise because of two main reasons: the instability of parametric inference procedures in chaotic
systems which can lead to biased parameter estimates, and the discrepancy between the real system
dynamics and the modeled one,a problem that Perretti and collaborators call “the true model myth”.
Should ecologists go on using the demanding parametric machinery when trying to forecast the
dynamics of complex ecosystems?