Ecological Stability: Reality, Misconceptions, and Implications for Risk Assessment

Abstract

Over a long time frame, an ecological system may not exhibit constancy due to successional and evolutionary changes in the species composing the system. However, over shorter time frames an ecological system exhibits a certain degree of constancy (i.e., varies within defined bounds). Traditionally, ecologists considered this short-term constancy to reflect a “balance of nature,” which was viewed akin to the simple homeostatic dynamics of physiological systems. This is an appealing perspective because the disruption of the system's “balance” (i.e., its ”health“) can be ascertained by comparing the system's current state after the imposition of a perturbation with the societally desired state (i.e., baseline). Recently, ecologists have started to develop a much more complex, and perhaps more realistic, perspective regarding ecosystem dynamics, which does not depend upon homeostasis with a single baseline state. This new view includes stochastic variation, nonlinear dynamics and alternative states, and poses a challenge for assessing environmental “health” and the risk of creating “unhealthy” ecological systems