Explore the critical role of transient dynamics in ecological understanding through this one-hour colloquium by Alan Hastings from SFI and UC Davis. Delve into why focusing on long-term behavior in ecological models may be misguided given the time scales of ecological dynamics. Examine older work highlighting the importance of transients and associated challenges, before progressing to more recent collaborative research. Discover a rough classification of features producing transients, similar to approaches for understanding dynamical systems. Investigate the implications for ecological management and the impact of transients in stochastic systems. Explore connections between non-autonomous systems, tipping points, and transients, while considering the substantial challenges this work presents for appropriate modeling approaches. The talk covers topics such as longterm dynamics, overcompensatory behavior, three-species food chains, ghost attractors, competition models, and nonlinear systems. Read more