Stochastic
Random or probabilistic; involving chance. In biology, refers to processes whose outcomes are partly determined by random variation rather than being fully predictable.
Used in the Books
This term appears in 5 chapters:
"...-65); authoritative synthesis of diet selection, patch use, and foraging pattern predictions. Real, Leslie, and Thomas Caraco. "Risk and Foraging in Stochastic Environments." Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 17 (1986): 371-390. > Supports: Risk-sensitive foraging theory (lines 157-186); compreh..."
"...t defense: Guard all 5,000 caches simultaneously, 24/7 - impossible - Perfect retrieval**: Never forget, never lose, never fail - unachievable in stochastic environments Evolution ran this experiment for 3.8 billion years across every organism that stores resources."
"...election is deterministic - given the same environment and the same variants, it will consistently favor certain traits over others. Genetic drift is stochastic - run the same scenario twice, and you'll get different outcomes. Selection is predictable; drift is random. Selection optimizes; drift wanders."
".... - Environmental change: Gradual climate shifts, sea level changes, or habitat loss cause populations to decline below viability thresholds. - Stochastic events: Small populations go extinct through random demographic fluctuations (all individuals happen to die in one bad year, or all offspring happe..."
"...se released trees eventually become large canopy dominants themselves. The key process generating extreme inequality is multiplicative growth with stochastic variation. Trees that are slightly larger have advantages (more light access, more photosynthesis, more growth), creating positive feedback: size b..."
Biological Context
Population fluctuations are partly stochastic—random variation in births, deaths, and environmental conditions creates unpredictable dynamics. Genetic mutations are stochastic. Ecological models often include stochastic elements to capture real-world unpredictability.