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.
Even-aged forest management is geared towards timber production with ecosystem health as a lesser consideration. This creates a dichotomy where forests are treated either as plantations or reserves. Uneven-aged management ...
Do you think you know which species are most vulnerable in an ecosystem? A novel analytical method developed by Italian physicists at the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) suggests there's more to discover. In their recent study, ...
Ecology
Jul 10, 2025
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A new study reveals a bright spot for shellfish populations in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Combining paleontological tools and archaeological data with conservation research, the paper finds that, for the past 3,000 years, ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 9, 2025
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Understanding whether lakes are fed predominantly by groundwater or rainwater is critical to managing our water resources in the face of droughts and shortages, new research has found.
Earth Sciences
Jul 8, 2025
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A recent study has unveiled a paradox across Eurasia: while vegetation has visibly flourished in recent decades, the underlying resilience of its ecosystems has simultaneously weakened. This finding challenges the prevailing ...
Ecology
Jul 3, 2025
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The ocean is a source of life and resilience—for people and cultures, for livelihoods, for climate stability.
Environment
Jun 24, 2025
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Tipping points are the death of ecosystems. So scientists watch as warning signs gradually worsen until an ecosystem reaches the point of no return, when animal populations suddenly collapse. While tipping points can sometimes ...
Ecology
Jun 16, 2025
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New research led by the University of Sydney adds to our understanding of how rapidly rising sea levels due to climate change foreshadow the end of the Great Barrier Reef as we know it.
Earth Sciences
Jun 2, 2025
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Dense, spindly mangrove forests line the coast of tropical regions, buffering coastal flooding and providing a valuable sink for carbon, but there is concern that more intense and frequent storms due to climate change could ...
Environment
May 30, 2025
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The Amazon rainforest may be able to survive long-term drought caused by climate change, but adjusting to a drier, warmer world would exact a heavy toll, a study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution suggests.
Earth Sciences
May 15, 2025
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