Introduction
One constant that all ecologists can agree on is that communities are always changing. Some communities show more dynamism than others. For example, it is hard to imagine that desert communities, with their large, stoic cacti, have changed much over time.
This is especially true if you compare deserts with, for example, high mountain streams or rocky intertidal zones, where species are coming and going on a regular basis. But community change is relative, and there is no question that even deserts change, though at a much slower pace than we might realize on the basis of one visit, or even one ecological study.Unfortunately, we humans cannot deny that our actions are becoming one of the strongest forces of change in communities, and that we are taking those actions with an imperfect understanding of their consequences. In this chapter, we will consider the agents of change in communities, from subtle to catastrophic, and their effects on community structure over time.
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