title: Disturbance of the terrestrial ecosystems stability due to global-scale anthropogenic impacts.
abstract: Intact natural ecosystems are fairly stable objects. In the course of natural selection proceeding against the background of synecological interactions (trophic, competitive, symbiotic, etc.), a respective complex of coadapted species forms, each being maximally accommodated to its habitat. Such a complex is of specific composition and possesses stable structural characteristics. Fairly regular processes of changes in these characteristics, specific to the given type of environmental conditions, are observed in non-stationary cases.We analyze probable causes of the loss of stability in natural systems exposed to man made impacts of a global scale, in particular structural instability, landscape (distributive) instability, and conductive instability.The study of the mechanisms ensuring biosphere sustainability and stability of its elements is a vital ecological problem. There are applied aspects in the problem solution since identification of man-induced instability is feasible only on the basis of precise knowledge of the natural mechanisms of weak points of the relevant natural process. This circumstance makes the problem of stability one of the focal questions of applied ecology.
authors.affiliation: Natural Environment and Climate Monitoring Laboratory, USSR State Committee for Hydrometeorology and Control of Natural Environment / USSR Academy of Sciences, USSR.
authors.forename: Y A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Izrael
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Filippova
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Insarov
authors.forename: F N
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Semevsky
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Semenov