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Communities can persist in the environment over considerable timescales. Even when subjected to multiple natural or anthropogenic disturbances, ecosystems show a remarkable resistance to change. There are, however, many examples where seemingly minor changes to environmental conditions have resulted in fundamental and difficult to reverse changes to community structure. Examples include shifts from coral- to macroalgae-dominated tropical marine environments, transformation of Australian mountain ash forests to grassland-dominated habitat and the extinction of the North American passenger pigeon. These are often cited as examples of habitats displaying multiple stable states.