Ecological systems are no longer at equilibrium, but over much of the history of the Earth, the natural world has been in stationary states, that are punctuated by periods of transience. Just because we have knocked our planet away from a stable state, doesn't mean we have to abandon the concept of equilibrium when we strive to understand the dynamics of the natural world.

中文翻译：

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我们生活在一个不断变化的世界中，但这并不意味着我们放弃了均衡的概念

生态系统不再处于平衡状态，但是在地球的大部分历史中，自然世界一直处于静止状态，并处于短暂的时期。仅仅因为我们使地球脱离了稳定状态，并不意味着我们在努力理解自然世界的动态时就不得不放弃平衡的概念。