Resilience, along with its sister term, resistance, is among the first ecological concepts taught to ecology undergraduates and remains central to conceiving how ecosystems cope – or do not – with environmental change. Despite its potential importance to conservation decisions and environmental management, confusion about how to define and measure resilience has impeded its application.
In an effort to reclaim the utility of resilience, Rachel Standish (UWA), Nancy Shackelford (Victoria Uni., Canada) and I brought 20 community ecologists together with the aim of quantifying ecosystem resilience and identifying the characteristics associated with it. Using experimental data gathered from around the world, we will compare the extent and speed of recovery of different ecosystems from different types of disturbance. In doing so, we intend to learn more about resilience and make its application to ecosystem management more feasible. More information.
Ecological Change 