Floods and fire can impact ecosystem composition at a local or regional scale, but these components are entirely necessary for ecosystem renewal and diversity. As parts of an ecosystem are disturbed, it opens niche space for early seral plants. Fire cycles can vary substantially even grasslands.
The reason these systems need human management now is because they have been highly disturbed, and the whole system is out of whack. Roughly 2-5% of the tall grass prairie remains. The overgrazing and invasive pests/plants issue you touch on is anthropogenic in origin, not so much in undisturbed systems.
I disagree.
Floods and fire can impact ecosystem composition at a local or regional scale, but these components are entirely necessary for ecosystem renewal and diversity. As parts of an ecosystem are disturbed, it opens niche space for early seral plants. Fire cycles can vary substantially even grasslands.
The reason these systems need human management now is because they have been highly disturbed, and the whole system is out of whack. Roughly 2-5% of the tall grass prairie remains. The overgrazing and invasive pests/plants issue you touch on is anthropogenic in origin, not so much in undisturbed systems.