Nothing Endures but Change: Ecology's Newly Emerging Paradigm

The study of history, human or otherwise, is really the study of change, the processes by which change is effected, and the effects of change. Change is normal in ecosystems. Measurement of change is scale dependent in both time and space. In nature, change occurs relatively continuously, though at varying rates and multiple spatial scales. The balance of nature, a philosophical construct that dates back to largely incorrect assumptions, is an artifact of scale as it relates to human intuitive perception. It is not real. The paradigm now accepted by most ecologists is that periodic disturbance at multiple scales is the most important determining factor in structuring ecosystems. The history of bird and mammal populations of eastern forests strongly supports this newly emerging paradigm.