Ecosystems and "collapse." I think that many people have become habituated to thinking of ecosystems as stable sorts of things, hence the recent widespread and inappropriate use of the adjective "healthy" in their description.
I tend to think of ecosystems as complex sets of interactions in which the dynamics operate along a scale from subtle oscillations to catastrophic change. Note the selection of the word "change" over collapse, for as one system (sets of interactions) undergoes massive change (perterbation, disturbance, etc) another undergoes construction: For each system that collapses, another, often equally as complex, will arise. In this manner, any change in predator-prey or host-parasite (etc) relationship or in the physical forcing functions will cause anything from a ripple in the oscillations to minor or major restructuring. The most appropriate example is how exotic species insert themselves into systems. Well, enough. Everyone knows all this, I guess I was just reminding folks. Tom > Ecolog: > > In that complex ballet between organisms and their "hosts" or "prey" at > every level of life, just what is it that keeps the ecosystem from > collapsing? > > WT >
