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.
Scientists from the Yale School of the Environment discovered that forests in the Everglades bounce back quickly after fires, often surpassing their previous levels of productivity. The research reaffirms the need to continue ...
Ecology
Oct 29, 2025
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As ecosystem engineers, beavers build resilience into the landscape. Above ground, we can see changes wrought by beaver ponds such as increases in biodiversity and water retention. But UConn Department of Earth Sciences researcher ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 27, 2025
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In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the streams are telling us a story about forest recovery following acid rain and logging. According to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, long-term ...
Ecology
Oct 23, 2025
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Some ancient stony corals were able to survive extreme environmental changes, which suggests that some modern species could also possess some resilience to the effects of climate change, according to research published in ...
Evolution
Oct 22, 2025
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Could the boreal forest be less fragile than we think? Contrary to the predictions of models that forecast its rapid decline in favor of temperate maple forests, the ecological history of the boreal forest is showing surprising ...
Environment
Oct 16, 2025
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Corals, the foundation of ocean biodiversity, are threatened by climate change. But new research suggests that these organisms might be more resilient than previously thought.
Plants & Animals
Oct 1, 2025
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In about 30 acres of dense forest in the Litchfield Hills, a team of foresters and researchers are pioneering new forest management techniques that they say can be replicated throughout New England to make trees more resilient ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 25, 2025
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Humans are gambling on the very stability of Earth's life support systems, scientists said Wednesday, warning that ocean acidity was yet another key planetary threshold to be breached.
Environment
Sep 24, 2025
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The global food system contributes to multiple planetary crises—and is vulnerable to them. Climate change, other ecological degradation and socio-economic inequality are all linked to food.
Agriculture
Sep 22, 2025
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A new study published in Ecological Applications demonstrates that commercial fisheries function much like an investment portfolio: diversity brings stability. The research shows that when different fish species in the Chesapeake ...
Ecology
Sep 22, 2025
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