Disturbance and Basic Properties of Ecosystem Energetics

Ecologists have traditionally been inclined to envisage the natural environment as relatively benign and disturbance-free, nurturing a diversity of steady-state systems. Thus, it has been customary to view the human-dominated world as a harsh and strange place for the native biota because of the predominance of disturbance associated with human activities. In the last decade, however, the realization that disturbance was and is a natural and frequent component of unpeopled landscapes has taken firm root in our thinking. As a result, a different paradigm for natural systems is emerging: one that recognizes natural disturbance and concomitant recovery mechanisms as integrated aspects of normal ecosystem behavior (Loucks 1970; Levin and Paine 1974; Connell and Slatyer 1977; Grime 1977; Trudgill 1977; Cattelino et al. 1979; White 1979; Holling 1981; Shugart and West 1980; Vogl 1980).