Table 2.

Properties of natural ecosystems compared with modern and sustainable agroecosystems. (Adapted from Gliessman (2005).)

property	natural ecosystem	modern agroecosystem	sustainable agroecosystem
productivity	medium	high	medium (possibly high)
species diversity	high	low	medium
functional diversity	high	low	medium–high
output stability	medium	low–medium	high
biomass accumulation	high	low	medium–high
nutrient recycling	closed	open	semi-closed
trophic relationships	complex	simple	intermediate
natural population regulation	high	low	medium–high
resilience	high	low	medium
dependence on external inputs	low	high	medium
human displacement of ecological processes	low	high	low–medium
sustainability	high	low	high