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The relationship between diversity and stability has been widely studied. [4] [21] Diversity can enhance the stability of ecosystem functions at various ecological scales. [22] For example, genetic diversity can enhance resistance to environmental perturbations. [23] At the community level, the structure of food webs can affect stability.
The balance of nature, also known as ecological balance, is a theory that proposes that ecological systems are usually in a stable equilibrium or homeostasis, which is to say that a small change (the size of a particular population, for example) will be corrected by some negative feedback that will bring the parameter back to its original "point of balance" with the rest of the system.
For example, birth rate, death rate, migration, and density-dependent predation indirectly alter the ecosystem state by changing population density (a state variable). Ecosystem parameters are quantities that are unresponsive (or respond very slowly) to feedbacks from the system (i.e., they are independent of system feedbacks).
In ecology, resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a perturbation or disturbance by resisting damage and subsequently recovering. Such perturbations and disturbances can include stochastic events such as fires, flooding, windstorms, insect population explosions, and human activities such as deforestation, fracking of the ground for oil extraction, pesticide sprayed in soil ...
Evolutionarily stable strategies were defined and introduced by John Maynard Smith and George R. Price in a 1973 Nature paper. [2] Such was the time taken in peer-reviewing the paper for Nature that this was preceded by a 1972 essay by Maynard Smith in a book of essays titled On Evolution. [1]
Another example of anthropogenic disturbance is controlled burns used by Native Americans to maintain fire-dependent ecosystems. These disturbances helped maintain stability and biodiversity in ecosystems, enhancing overall ecosystem health and functioning. [9] [10] [11] [12]
An even number of protons or neutrons is more stable (higher binding energy) because of pairing effects, so even–even nuclides are much more stable than odd–odd. One effect is that there are few stable odd–odd nuclides: in fact only five are stable, with another four having half-lives longer than a billion years.
Haeckel, who admired Darwin's work, defined ecology in reference to the economy of nature, which has led some to question whether ecology and the economy of nature are synonymous. [ 245 ] The layout of the first ecological experiment, carried out in a grass garden at Woburn Abbey in 1816, was noted by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species .