An ecosystem that will maintain or return to its original condition after any disturbance. D. A. Perry defines a stable ecosystem as one that is capable of constraining its own fluctuations within certain bounds and, if not maintaining constancy in its species composition and productivity, at least maintaining constancy in certain potentials. However, Bowker in A. Ong and S. Collier, eds (2005) argues that ‘the stable ecosystem in equilibrium is a myth’.