  We develop a formalism to describe the discrete-time dynamics of systems
containing an arbitrary number of interacting species. The individual-based
model, which forms our starting point, is described by a Markov chain, which in
the limit of large system sizes is shown to be very well-approximated by a
Fokker-Planck-like equation, or equivalently by a set of stochastic difference
equations. This formalism is applied to the specific case of two species: one
predator species and its prey species. Quasi-cycles --- stochastic cycles
sustained and amplified by the demographic noise --- previously found in
continuous-time predator-prey models are shown to exist, and their behavior
predicted from a linear noise analysis is shown to be in very good agreement
with simulations. The effects of the noise on other attractors in the
corresponding deterministic map, such as periodic cycles, quasiperiodicity and
chaos, are also investigated.
