Ecosystem development as an autogenic process may be defined in terms of the following three parameters (1) it is the orderly process of community changes; these are directional and, therefore, predictable. (2) it results from the modification of the physical environment and population structure by the community. (3) it culminates the establishment of as stablean ecosystem as is biologically possible on the site in question. It is important to emphasize that this kind of ecological change is community controlled; each set of organisms changes the physical substrate and the microclimate ( local conditions of temperature, light, and so on), and species composition and diversity is altered as a result of competitive and other population interactions described in this post. When the site and the community has been modified as much as it can be by biological processes, a steady – state develops at least in theory. Also, in theory energy utilization is optimized in that maximum biomass (or information content) is maintained per init of available energy flow. The species involved, time required, and degree of stability achieved depend on geography, climate, substrate, and other physical factors, but the process of development itself is biological, not physical. That is, the physical environment determines the pattern of change but does not eause it.

In summary, increasing the efficiency of energy atilization so that each unit of structure is maintained with the least possible work can be considered to be ‘’the strategy of ecosystem development.’’ Strong physical forces or surges, as well as large harvests or pollution input from man’s fuel – powered systems, will modify, halt, or abort this developmental course. As we shall see, understanding man’s impact on the developmental process is one of the most important considerations in achieving a resonable working balance between man and nature.