Ecosystems not searching for balance
Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - 07:30
in Biology & Nature
Species abundances in natural ecosystems may never settle at a stable equilibrium. Biologists from the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Leigh Marine Laboratory (New Zealand) and Cornell University (USA) report that species in one of the world's oldest marine reserves showed chaotic fluctuations for more than 20 years. The species replaced each other in cyclic order, yet the exact timing and abundances of the species were unpredictable. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).