Ecosystem resilience is the capacity of an ecological system to absorb disturbances, reorganize, and retain its essential structure, functions, feedbacks, and identity within a particular stability domain. It reflects the system’s ability to maintain key processes such as nutrient cycling, energy flow, and species interactions despite perturbations, including climatic extremes, biological invasions, or anthropogenic impacts. Resilience arises from mechanisms like functional redundancy, response diversity, spatial and temporal heterogeneity, and connectivity among habitat patches. In research, it is quantified through metrics such as recovery rates, persistence of functional groups, thresholds for regime shifts, and the magnitude of disturbance a system can withstand before transitioning to an alternative stable state.
Around the world, people plan to plant more than 1 trillion trees this decade in an ambitious effort to slow climate change and reduce biodiversity loss. But if the past is prolonged, many of those planted trees won't survive. ...
Ecology
14 hours ago
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New research from the UBC-based Mother Tree Project is shedding light on how forests respond to harvesting and climate stress, including practices aimed at reducing wildfire risk. The work is published in the Canadian Journal ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 14, 2026
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Restoring forests, wetlands and peatlands could help defend national borders as well as tackle climate change, according to new research from the University of East London (UEL). The study introduces the concept of "defensive ...
Environment
Apr 10, 2026
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Sustainability has become something of a buzzword over the years. From the clothes we wear and the energy that powers our homes to the way we live our lives, the idea of sustainable production and consumption has become commonplace.
Agriculture
Apr 8, 2026
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Scientists have warned that a new UK Government report on global biodiversity loss and national security risks distorting evidence and driving ineffective policy by framing ecological degradation and its impacts on migration ...
Environment
Apr 8, 2026
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University of Queensland researchers are urging governments to use newly created national data to protect the country's last remaining ecosystems free of human pressures. The two new datasets map the extent of ecosystem disturbance ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 2, 2026
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In dryland ecosystems, increased environmental stress often triggers a change from a uniform vegetation cover to patchy vegetation patterns. Some theoretical studies suggest that this spatial self-organization of vegetation ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 1, 2026
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Billed as the first comprehensive report on the state of U.S. lands, water, and wildlife, the Nature Record National Assessment includes the decline of butterfly populations and other species to the remarkable comeback of ...
Environment
Mar 28, 2026
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From deadly heat waves to unprecedented flooding, devastating wildfires to record-breaking droughts, extreme weather is becoming the new normal. As climate-fueled shocks multiply, some creatures in our oceans, forests, deserts ...
Evolution
Mar 23, 2026
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Mangrove forests protect tropical coasts from storms, store large amounts of carbon and provide vital habitats for plants and animals, serving, for example, as nurseries for fish and crabs. They also supply local communities ...
Ecology
Mar 12, 2026
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