  Interactions in ecological communities are inherently nonlinear and can lead
to complex population dynamics including irregular fluctuations induced by
chaos. Chaotic population dynamics can exhibit violent oscillations with
extremely small or large population abundances that might cause extinction and
recurrent outbreaks, respectively. We present a simple method that can guide
management efforts to prevent crashes, peaks, or any other undesirable state.
At the same time, the irregularity of the dynamics can be preserved when chaos
is desirable for the population. The control scheme is easy to implement
because it relies on time series information only. The method is illustrated by
two examples: control of crashes in the Ricker map and control of outbreaks in
a stage-structured model of the flour beetle Tribolium. It turns out to be
effective even with few available data and in the presence of noise, as is
typical for ecological settings.
