Different species with similar niches can coexist in the same community if disturbances prevent compeptitive exclusion of competitively inferior species. Disturbances which open up gaps are common in all kind of community. Even in virgin forests without any artificial disturbance, there exist a significant proportion of trees of early successional shade-in-tolerant species in addition to the dominant late successional shade-tolerant species. In forest ecosystems, most canopy tree species including shade-tolerant ones require one or more gaps in their life-time to reach the canopy. Because of these frequent disturbances, forests can be considered of dynamic mosaics of patches of different ages and with different species composition which are in certain stages of recovery from disturbances. Disturbances temporarily increase the availability of resources such as light, water and soil nutrient for other in dividuals through the death of one or more canopy trees.