Changing Concepts of the Balance of Nature

Egerton, Frank N.

doi:10.1086/407594

Cited by 289 publications

(159 citation statements)

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“…S ince ancient times, it is often argued that undisturbed ecosystems will approach some form of stable equilibrium, at which the populations of the species are maintained at relatively constant numbers (1,2). However, ecological studies have criticized this idea of "the balance of nature" by pointing out that species abundances in natural ecosystems may remain in a perpetual state of change (3)(4)(5).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Species fluctuations sustained by a cyclic succession at the edge of chaos

Benincà

Ballantine

Ellner

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

147

172

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Although mathematical models and laboratory experiments have shown that species interactions can generate chaos, field evidence of chaos in natural ecosystems is rare. We report on a pristine rocky intertidal community located in one of the world's oldest marine reserves that has displayed a complex cyclic succession for more than 20 y. Bare rock was colonized by barnacles and crustose algae, they were overgrown by mussels, and the subsequent detachment of the mussels returned bare rock again. These processes generated irregular species fluctuations, such that the species coexisted over many generations without ever approaching a stable equilibrium state. Analysis of the species fluctuations revealed a dominant periodicity of about 2 y, a global Lyapunov exponent statistically indistinguishable from zero, and local Lyapunov exponents that alternated systematically between negative and positive values. This pattern indicates that the community moved back and forth between stabilizing and chaotic dynamics during the cyclic succession. The results are supported by a patch-occupancy model predicting similar patterns when the species interactions were exposed to seasonal variation. Our findings show that natural ecosystems can sustain continued changes in species abundances and that seasonal forcing may push these nonequilibrium dynamics to the edge of chaos.chaos | coexistence | cyclic succession | rock-paper-scissors dynamics | rocky intertidal community

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Species fluctuations sustained by a cyclic succession at the edge of chaos

Benincà

Ballantine

Ellner

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

147

172

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“…The balance of nature paradigm has a long-standing tradition both in Western culture and in the development of ecological theory (Egerton 1973). A quasiscientific foundation for the balance of nature perspective is found in the essay "The Oeconomy of Nature" (1749), written by the famous Swedish biologist Carl von Linne.…”

Section: Disturbance Ecology and The Loss Of Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Economics, Natural Disturbances and the New Ecology

Holmes

Huggett

Pye

2008

The Economics of Forest Disturbances

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“…However, the government does not explicitly define what is meant by "balance in nature". The idea that there is some sort of balance in nature is old and has been a background assumption in various academic disciplines for centuries [12,13]. In its oldest sense "balance in nature" simply denoted an entirely stable, or constant, natural order [14, p. 32].…”

Section: A Balanced Marine Environment: Precisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rational environmental goals and sustainable planning

Edvardsson¹

2006

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 93

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In Sweden planning towards ecological sustainability starts out from a system of environmental objectives adopted by Parliament in the late 1990s. The objectives express what environmental quality society should aim for within a generation, and are designed to guide decision-making in all sectors of society. In order to form a solid basis for planning towards ecological sustainability, the objectives must meet two types of conditions. First, they must have the capacity to guide and motivate those who are responsible for their implementation. To do so each objective must satisfy a set of rationality (functionality) criteria for individual goals: precision, evaluability, approachability, and motivity. Second, taken together the objectives must constitute a rational (functional) operationalization of the ecological dimension of sustainable development. For this to be the case the goal system must be coherent. An application of the suggested conditions to three Swedish environmental quality objectives illustrates some of the difficulties that are associated with the Swedish system of environmental objectives and ultimately with the whole idea of using goals in environmental management.

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Changing Concepts of the Balance of Nature

Cited by 289 publications

References 0 publications

Species fluctuations sustained by a cyclic succession at the edge of chaos

Species fluctuations sustained by a cyclic succession at the edge of chaos

Forest Economics, Natural Disturbances and the New Ecology

Rational environmental goals and sustainable planning

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