Operationalizing Ecological Resilience Concepts for Managing Species and Ecosystems at Risk

Abstract

This review provides an overview and integration of the use of resilience concepts to guide natural resources management actions. We emphasize ecosystems and landscapes and provide examples of the use of these concepts from empirical research in applied ecology. We begin with a discussion of definitions and concepts of ecological resilience and related terms that are applicable to management. We suggest that a resilience-based framework for management facilitates regional planning by providing the ability to locate management actions where they will have the greatest benefits and determine effective management strategies. We review the six key components of a resilience-based framework, beginning with managing for adaptive capacity and selecting an appropriate spatial extent and grain. Critical elements include developing an understanding of the factors influencing the general and ecological resilience of ecosystems and landscapes, the landscape context and spatial resilience, pattern and process interactions and their variability, and relationships among ecological and spatial resilience and the capacity to support habitats and species. We suggest that a spatially explicit approach, which couples geospatial information on general and spatial resilience to disturbance with information on resources, habitats, or species, provides the foundation for resilience-based management. We provide a case study from the sagebrush biome that illustrates the use of geospatial information on ecological and spatial resilience for prioritizing management actions and determine effective strategies.

Metrics and Models for Quantifying Ecological Resilience at Landscape Scales

“…A resilience-based management approach facilitates regional planning by providing evaluations of current ecological conditions relative to system equilibrium and reference states (Hessburg et al, 2013;McIntyre et al, 2014;Tambosi et al, 2014;Rappaport et al, 2015;Chambers et al, 2019). Importantly, operationalizing the concept of resilience into an analytical framework enables the optimization of management actions to achieve have the greatest benefits (e.g., McGarigal et al, 2018).…”

“…Importantly, operationalizing the concept of resilience into an analytical framework enables the optimization of management actions to achieve have the greatest benefits (e.g., McGarigal et al, 2018). Chambers et al (2019) reviewed six key components of a resilience-based approach, including (1) formalizing the concept of managing for adaptive capacity, (2) selecting an appropriate spatial extent and grain, (3) understanding the factors influencing the resilience of ecosystems and landscapes, (4) the importance landscape context in measuring and defining resilience, (5) pattern and process interactions and their variability, and (6) relationships among ecological and spatial resilience and the capacity to support habitats and species. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to concepts and methods from landscape ecology to implement these six components of assessing and managing for ecological resilience.…”

“…Landscape ecology is the science of pattern-process relationships and, in particular, how patterns of disturbance, recover and ecological conditions drive ecological processes (Turner, 1989). The tools of landscape ecology, including landscape pattern analysis and landscape dynamic simulation modeling provide a means to implement the six components of the ecological resilience framework (Chambers et al, 2019). In this paper we provide a case study landscape of using landscape pattern analysis (e.g., McGarigal et al, 2012) and landscape dynamic simulation modeling (e.g., Littell et al, 2011;McGarigal et al, 2018) to assess the ecological condition of a case study landscape and how the current condition of that landscape departs from the range of conditions expected under a historic disturbance regime.…”

“…Incorporating larger scales provides the basis for directing limited management resources to those areas on the landscape where they are likely to have the greatest benefit (Holl and Aide, 2011;Allen et al, 2016;Chambers et al, 2017c). Restoration efforts or conservation measures for individual species or small areas are often inefficient or unsuccessful if they do not consider the larger environmental context, pattern and process interactions, and essential ecosystem elements, such as biodiversity, habitat connectivity, and capacity to supply ecosystem services over time (Chambers et al, 2019).…”

Climate-Driven Shifts in Soil Temperature and Moisture Regimes Suggest Opportunities to Enhance Assessments of Dryland Resilience and Resistance

“…In the dryland ecosystems that characterize much of western North America, long-term environmental conditions can provide useful insights into ecological resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasive species (Chambers et al, 2014a(Chambers et al, , 2019a. Recent work has applied soil characteristics to describe geographic patterns of disturbance resilience and invasion resistance, specifically cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), at regional to site scales (Chambers et al, , 2017aMaestas et al, 2016).…”