The mosaic-cycle hypothesis, originally proposed by Aubreville (1938), has been recently reviewed by Remmert (1987). In essence, Aubreville's hypothesis predicts that if a tree or group of trees dies in a natural, tropical forest, the empty space will be occupied by new pioneer plants which will be replaced by a succession of vegetation phases ending in the original 'climax' vegetation. In this manner cycles of varying 'mosaic' phases are created. Remmert (1987) extended this hypothesis to all natural systems and posed, inter alia, the following questions: 1. ' What agents drive the cycles? Is it the longevity of the key organisms or have we to look for fungi, microbes and animals?' 2. 'What is the size of the mosaic stones and what determines the size?'.