Here we present examples of response diversity from both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and across temporal and spatial scales. Natures role in climate change terrestrial and marine ecosystems play an important role in regulating climate. Response diversity, ecosystem change, and resilience elmqvist. Principles for building resilience sustaining ecosystem services in socialecological. Ecological diversity and resilience gross national happiness. Climate change adaptation is described by the intergovernmental panel on climate change as adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial. The resilience of ecosystem functions to environmental change is likely to be. The maintenance of ecosystem functions and services under substantial predicted future environmental change i.
Diversity of responses to environmental change among species that contribute to the same ecosystem function. It supports the complexity of ecosystem functions and the cascades of interactions that deliver services and benefits3. More kinds of species in a particular ecosystem, the more likely it is to overcome threats such as natural disasters and climate change. Resilient ecosystems sustain biological diversity and human livelihoods in times of severe and wideranging change, and the concepts of resiliencebased ecosystem stewardship 5 helps people to enhance the resilience of the ecosystems within which they live, and upon which their livelihoods and wellbeing depend.
We try to gain insight to this paradox, by analyzing a simple model of a diverse community where each competing species inflicts a small mortality. The term resilience is a term that is sometimes used interchangeably with robustness to describe the ability of a system to continue functioning amid and recover from. It first describes the ecosystem services that contribute to mitigation and adaptation, as well as the threat of climate change to ecosystem services. Nevertheless, highly diverse ecosystems have collapsed, as did lake victorias ecosystem of cichlids or caribbean coral reefs. Jun 11, 20 by aiming to restore ecosystem resilience, plant communities can endure in the face of drastic disturbance whether induced by climate change or biotic invasion, says qinfeng guo, a u. A keystone mutualism underpins resilience of a coastal. Hicke5 1institute of silviculture, department of forest and soil sciences, university of natural resources and life. Ecological resilience, also called ecological robustness, the ability of an ecosystem to maintain its normal patterns of nutrient cycling and biomass production after being subjected to damage caused by an ecological disturbance.
To aid environmental management in the face of conflicting landuse pressures, there is an urgent need to quantify and predict the spatial and temporal distribution of ecosystem functions and services. Thus, ecosystem based approach through adaptation and mitigation is instrumental to maintain ecosystem health so as to sustain system resilience in the face of climate change. Response diversity, ecosystem change, and resilience thomas elmqvist, stockholm university nov. An ecosystem services approach to assessing the impacts of the deepwater horizon oil spill in the gulf of mexico discusses the benefits and challenges associated with using an ecosystem services approach to damage assessment, describing potential impacts of response technologies, exploring the role of resilience, and offering suggestions for. Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem. Response diversity, ecosystem change, and resilience. Response diversity, ecosystem change, and resilience article pdf available in frontiers in ecology and the environment 19. The property of an ecosystem that describes this change in stability landscapes and resilience is referred to as adaptive capacity 19. In addition to the role species play in maintaining resilience, connectivity. However, local planning practices that support these approaches are scattered, and measures are neither.
Conversely, a second stabilizing mechanism termed response diversity might exert stronger stabilizing effects in real ecosystems than it has thus far in experiments. In particular, we hold that the variability in responses of species within functional groups to environmental change is critical to ecosystem resilience, a property that. In standard ecological usage, response diversity rd refers to the range of reactions to environmental change among species that contribute to the same. Here we identify a range of mechanisms underpinning the resilience of ecosystem functions across three ecological scales. Biological diversity appears to play a substantial role in ecosystem resilience and in sustaining desirable ecosystem states in the face of change peterson et al. Ecosystems vary in their ability to buffer and adapt to both natural and anthropogenic changes as well as recover after changes i.
The same principle holds true for species diversity. When subjected to severe change, ecosystems may cross thresholds and move into different and often less desirable ecological states or trajectories. Sustaining ecosystem services in socialecological systems. All describe aspects of change in ecosystems and the degree of that change. New paradigms for supporting the resilience of marine ecosystems. Biodiversity and resilience of ecosystem functions. Social and ecological vulnerability and resilience to climate change are inextricably linked and should be considered as integrated socioecological systems. Hicke5 1institute of silviculture, department of forest and soil sciences, university of natural resources and life sciences. Response diversity and resilience resilience has been used in several different ways, including as an evocative metaphor in discourse on sustainability and as a quantity that is potentially measurable in a specific ses carpenter et al.
The 12 principles of the ecosystems approach are complementary and. Cobenefits in addition to the goal it is implemented for, ecosystembased adaptation can provide multiple social, economic and cultural cobenefits for local communities and reduce vulnerability to other risks. Response diversity, ecosystem change, and resilience esa journals. Finally, ecosystem diversity measures number a variety of different ecosystems in a region. Ecosystem services and resilience openness project. Ecosystem dynamics and multiple stable states the previous section outlined a contrast among three views of resilience. Ecosystems, climate change and resilience in nepals ruralurban continuum ajaya dixit espa meeting 26 and 27 november 2014 new delhi. Aug 18, 2016 in light of these changes, identifying which factors enhance ecosystem resilience to droughttheir ability to resist change andor rapidly return to desirable states 8 has emerged as an. The resilience and resistance of an ecosystem to a collapse of. Response diversity of cultivars may decrease, even if cultivar diversity. Data from experiments that manipulated grassland biodiversity across europe and north america show that biodiversity increases an ecosystems resistance to, although not resilience after. Protecting and enhancing the resilience of ecosystems u. Resilience is the capacity of a socialecological system to absorb or withstand perturbations and other stressors such that the system remains within the same regime, essentially maintaining its structure and functions.
Response diversity provides adaptive capacity in a world of complex systems, uncertainty, and. Pdf response diversity, ecosystem change, and resilience. It describes the degree to which the system is capable of selforganization, learning and adaptation holling 1973, gunderson. New paradigms for supporting the resilience of marine.
The diversity of responses to environmental change among species contributing to the. Enhancing the resilience of ecosystem services es that underpin human wellbeing is critical for meeting current and future societal needs, and requires specific governance and management policies. Biological diversity appears to enhance the resilience of desirable ecosystem states, which is required to secure the production of essential ecosystem services. This role is related to the diversity of functional groups in a dynamic ecosystem undergoing change, and the species diversity within these groups walker 1992, 1997.
Response diversity builds resilience in ecosystems. This program is led by the international water management institute iwmi, a member. The concept of es and the benefits these flows bring to humans is a burgeoning area of research. The resilience and resistance of an ecosystem to a. They currently absorb roughly half of manmade carbon emissions. The diversity of responses to environmental change among species contributing to the same ecosystem function, which we call response diversity, is critical to resilience. Using the literature, we identify seven generic policyrelevant principles for enhancing the resilience of desired es in the face of disturbance and ongoing change in socialecological systems. Such perturbations and disturbances can include stochastic events such as fires, flooding, windstorms, insect population explosions, and human activities such as deforestation, fracking of the ground for oil extraction, pesticide sprayed in soil, and. Response diversity and resilience in socialecological systems. The diversity of responses to environmental change among species contributing to the same ecosystem function i.
The diversity of responses to environmental change among species contributing to the same ecosystem function, which we call response diversity. Diversity within functional groups is important to the adaptive capacity of ecosystems. This chapter explores the links between ecosystem services and climate change. Strengthening community and ecosystem resilience against. Diversity matters at different levels and scales, from genes to species and from habitats to landscapes. Factors that contribute to ecological resilience vary by ecosystem, but some studies suggest that biological diversity and in particular functional redundancy positively influences ecosystem resilience allen et al.
Elmqvist t, folke c, nystrom m, peterson g, bengtsson j, walker b, jon n. It also means emphasising the need to develop flexible systems that manage for change, to see. For example, increasing concern about the combined impacts of. Ecosystem services and resilience esr is a crosscutting core theme within wle that focuses on the role of ecosystem service based approaches in building community resilience and helping wle achieve its development outcomes. The concept of resilience originates in research on child behavior,1 which indicates that some children prove to be positive, focused, flexible and proactive in a word, resilient despite exposure to extremely challenging and stressful environments. The assessment serves adaptive management in the face of both ecological. Diversity, adaptability and ecosystem resilience rozenn keribin1, dr andrew friend1, dr drew purves2 1 department of geography, university of cambridge 2 microsoft research, cambridge summary. Ecosystem restoration is frequently offered as a partial solution to these threats, because less stressed ecosystems seem better equipped to resist invasion.
Biodiversity and ecosystem services help us to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Toward principles for enhancing the resilience of ecosystem. The limits to ecosystem functioning may be affected to different degrees by. Holling 1973 defined ecosystem resilience as the amount of disturbance a system can absorb and yet remain within the same state or domain of. To learn more about the impacts of climate change and variability on ecosystem vulnerability, visit the subtopic pages. Across the globe, conservation efforts have not managed to alleviate biodiversity loss, and this will ultimately impact many functions delivered by ecosystems 2, 3. Forest service research ecologist and author, along with coauthor steve norman, of a chapter in the new book invasive plant ecology. Consider the ways in which monmouthshire county council can influence biodiversity and ecosystem resilience when exercising its functions as a public authority. By aiming to restore ecosystem resilience, plant communities can endure in the face. Resilience thinking considers those properties of human and natural systems complex adaptive socialecological systems that enhance their resilience. The purpose of eba is to increase the resilience of both human systems and ecosystems through activities such as sustainable management of natural resources. The contribution of ecosystem services to human resilience.
Cultivating resilience by empirically revealing response diversity. Maintain diversity and redundancy 50 karen kotschy, reinette biggs, tim daw, carl folke and paul c. In ecology, resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a perturbation or disturbance by resisting damage and recovering quickly. Protecting and enhancing the resilience of ecosystems the u. I am a coauthor and therefore my opinion is likely to be. The contribution of ecosystem services to human resilience iii summary ecosystem services es are the benefits provided by ecosystems that contribute to making human life possible and worth living ma, 2005. A quantitative framework for assessing ecological resilience. Jan 08, 2014 todays subject is one ive touched on before, but to my knowledge, the relationship between diversity simply put, more species and ecosystem resilience i. Sustaining ecosystem services in social ecological systems. Native forests and grasslands across the world face a range of threats, including climate change, urbanization, and exotic species invasions. Sep 27, 2012 diversity is expected to increase the resilience of ecosystems.
Response diversity is particularly important for ecosystem renewal and reorganization following change. Ecosystem services and resilience z 1 p a g e ecosystem services and resilience conor kretsch1 unott, uk erik stange2 nina, norway introduction and stateoftheart for many decades, diverse fields have used the concept of resilience in both their research and practice. Physical context ecosystems changing rural urban relationships climate change adaptation and resilience some questions concluding thoughts. Ecosystem functioning and patterns of species loss. In light of these changes, identifying which factors enhance ecosystem resilience to droughttheir ability to resist change andor rapidly return to desirable states 8 has emerged as an. Chapter 2 biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services. Consider the state of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience of monmouthshire and identify relevant habitats and species of principal importance for nature conservation. Global change, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.
Ecosystem based approaches for climate change adaptation are promoted at international, national, and local levels by both scholars and practitioners. With the northern cod, significant amounts of capelin an important prey species for the cod. Ecosystem resilience an overview sciencedirect topics. The role of ecosystem services in climate change adaptation.
Sustaining ecosystem services in social ecological systems edited by reinette biggs, maja schluter and michael l. The resilience and resistance of an ecosystem to a collapse. Programming resilience, in its purest sense, therefore means supporting interventions to increase diversity, connectivity, learning, reflexivity, redundancy, equity, inclusion and cohesion, while brokering the blending of knowledge. Building socioecological resilience to climate change. Diversity is expected to increase the resilience of ecosystems. The term resilience is a term that is sometimes used interchangeably with robustness to describe the ability of a. Ecosystem resilience in a changing world compasslive. Variation in the composition of species communities across. They are therefore a crucial part of our effort to combat climate change. Ecological resilience refers to the ability of an ecosystem to maintain key functions and processes in the face of stresses or pressures, by resisting and then adapting to change.
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