ABSTRACT
The second group refers rather to populations than to the community, which is considered stable when numbers of component populations do not undergo sharp fluctuations. This definition is closer to the thermodynamic (or rather, statistical physics) notion of system stability. In thermodynamics (statistical physics) a system is believed to be stable when large fluctuations, which can take the system far from the equilibrium or even destroy it, are unlikely (see, for instance, Landau and Lifshitz 1964). Evidently, general thermodynamic concepts (for instance, the stability principle associated in the case of closed systems with the Second Law of Thermodynamics and in the case of open systems with Prigogine’s theorem) should be applicable to biological (and, in particular, ecological) systems.
