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It is possible for an ecosystem or a community to be stable in some of their properties and unstable in others. For example, a vegetation community in response to a drought might conserve biomass but lose biodiversity. [3] Stable ecological systems abound in nature, and the scientific literature has documented them to a great extent.
The simplest kind of an orbit is a fixed point, or an equilibrium. If a mechanical system is in a stable equilibrium state then a small push will result in a localized motion, for example, small oscillations as in the case of a pendulum. In a system with damping, a stable equilibrium state is moreover asymptotically stable. On the other hand ...
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.
Verifying the existence of alternative stable states carries profound implications for ecosystem management. If stable states exist, gradual changes in environmental factors may have little effect on a system until a threshold is reached, at which point a catastrophic state shift may occur. Understanding the nature of these thresholds will help ...
Stable equilibrium can refer to: Homeostasis, a state of equilibrium used to describe organisms; Mechanical equilibrium, a state in which all particles in a system are at rest, and total force on each particle is permanently zero; Balance of nature, a theory in ecological science; Stability theory, a theory in mathematics
Many, but not all, biochemical pathways evolve to stable, steady states. As a result, the steady state represents an important reference state to study. This is also related to the concept of homeostasis, however, in biochemistry, a steady state can be stable or unstable such as in the case of sustained oscillations or bistable behavior.
In a dynamical system, multistability is the property of having multiple stable equilibrium points in the vector space spanned by the states in the system. By mathematical necessity, there must also be unstable equilibrium points between the stable points.
While the equilibrium may be disturbed by external factors, the population is considered to be in an evolutionarily stable state if it returns to the equilibrium state after the disturbance. [7] One of the base mathematical models for identifying an evolutionarily stable state was outlined by Taylor & Jonker in 1978. [7]