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Stability and complexity in model ecosystems.

Robert M. May
- Vol. 6, pp 1-235
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The article was published on 1973-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 5524 citations till now.

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Reciprocal relationships and potential feedbacks between biodiversity and disturbance

TL;DR: An initial attempt to synthesize two approaches to understand whether feedbacks occur, and what their effects on patterns of diversity might be, suggests that feedbacks can increase mean values of richness, decrease variability, and alter the patterns of correlation between diversity and disturbance in nature.
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Constraints on the evolution of mutualisms.

TL;DR: A brief discussion of pollination and seed dispersal suggests checks to mutualistic coevolution, and indicates that reciprocal adaptation, where it occurs, is general rather than specific.
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Ecological stability of forests and sustainable silviculture

TL;DR: In this paper, the main components of stability are resistance (inertia, immovability) and resilience (recoverability), with respect to genetic diversity within and between species and in relation to the biogeochemical cycle.
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The geometry of evolution.

TL;DR: Biological structures that are characterized by a high degree of component redundancy and multiple weak interactions satisfy the peak-climbing condition, but less likely to meet the stability condition.
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Uncertainty in the Theory of Renewable Resource Markets

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the implications of such ecological uncertainty for competitive equilibrium in a market with property rights and show that stochastic fluctuations add a risk premium to the rate of return required to keep a unit of stock in situ, and examine the effects of fluctuations on resource rent.