Editing Ecology (section)

=== Disturbance and resilience ===
{{Main|Resilience (ecology)}}

A disturbance is any process that changes or removes biomass from a community, such as a fire, flood, drought, or predation.<ref name="Hughes10"/> Disturbances are both the cause and product of natural fluctuations within an ecological community.<ref name="Levin92"/><ref name="Hughes10"/><ref name="Holling73" /><ref name="Folke04"/> Biodiversity can protect ecosystems from disturbances.<ref name="Folke04"/>

The effect of a disturbance is often hard to predict, but there are numerous examples in which a single species can massively disturb an ecosystem. For example, a single-celled [[protozoa]]n has been able to kill up to 100% of [[sea urchin]]s in some [[coral reef]]s in the [[Red Sea]] and Western [[Indian Ocean]]. Sea urchins enable complex reef ecosystems to thrive by eating [[algae]] that would otherwise inhibit coral growth.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Roth |first1=Lachan |last2=Eviatar |first2=Gal |last3=Schmidt |first3=Lisa-Maria |last4=Bonomo |first4=Mai |last5=Feldstein-Farkash |first5=Tamar |last6=Schubert |first6=Patrick |last7=Ziegler |first7=Maren |last8=Al-Sawalmih |first8=Ali |last9=Abdallah |first9=Ibrahim Souleiman |last10=Quod |first10=Jean-Pascal |last11=Bronstein |first11=Omri |date=May 2024 |title=Mass mortality of diadematoid sea urchins in the Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960982224005311 |journal=Current Biology |volume=34 |issue=12 |pages=2693–2701.e4 |language=en |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.057|pmid=38788707 |bibcode=2024CBio...34.2693R }}</ref> Similarly, [[invasive species]] can wreak havoc on ecosystems. For instance, invasive [[Burmese python]]s have caused a 98% decline of small [[mammal]]s in the [[Everglades]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zimmer |first=Katarina |date=2024-05-30 |title=Invasive species are transforming the Everglades |url=https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2024/how-to-save-the-everglades |journal=Knowable Magazine |language=en |doi=10.1146/knowable-053024-2|doi-access=free }}</ref>