Equilibrium and non-equilibrium concepts refers to the ideas and theories surrounding the interactions, regulation, and balances between various organisms within nature. There are both equilibrium and non-equilibrium states of nature. Non-equilibrium states of nature for example can be defined as a situation in where competitive exclusion is prevented in an ecological community due to disturbances affecting what would be stable communities through vectors such as predation, disease or other population disruptors.. These factors in turn put ecological communities in an unstable condition where uniformity is no longer present, creating a non-equilibrium state. On the other end, ecological communities in a state of equilibrium are typically balanced, uniform, and maintain the homeostasis of an ecosystem efficiently. Therefore, there can be many varying types of population dynamics throughout different ecosystems depending on factors that could create either an equilibrium or non-equilibrium state in an ecological community. Some of these population models include stable limit cycles, chaos, damped oscillations, and monotonic damping which can be seen on the graph below. Many times, these ecological theories are also displayed within the factors that determine a species carrying capacity in an ecosystem that could place the population in either equilibrium or chaos depending on these varying ecological factors as seen in the graph below.
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