IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v248y2013icp1-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interdisciplinary linkages of biophysical processes and resilience theory: Pursuing predictability

Author

Listed:
  • Zell, Chris
  • Hubbart, Jason A.

Abstract

The global value of ecosystem services is approximately $33 trillion per year. Given the economic value, it is not surprising that billions of dollars are spent annually to protect, preserve, restore and conserve natural resources. Resilience describes the ability of ecological systems to recover from disturbance. Resilient ecosystems remain productive and thus maintain services including biophysical processes that are important for human well-being. Four system-wide characteristics, or biophysical signatures are reviewed, at least one of which is required to relate ecosystem structure or function to resilience. Biophysical signatures include (a) variable material and energy recycling, (b) biodiversity, (c) the rate of governing processes, and (d) bioenergetics. Fast recycling rates encourage ecosystem stability by dampening oscillations while slow recycling rates increase resistance by weakly propagating disturbances. The role of biodiversity in stabilizing ecosystems may be viewed as either a functional redundancy where increased diversity resists perturbation by maintaining key ecosystem functions, or as response diversity that ensures recovery processes. Governing ecosystem processes that respond slowly, such as those involving large storage reservoirs, resist perturbation and shift to alternative states. Several observational resilience studies featured bioenergetics as both the perturbation force (i.e., predation, food supply) and the thermodynamic orientor that organizes recovery (i.e., maximizing exergy storage). An energy balance approach is proposed as a possible method to assess ecosystem stability. Validating a mechanistic resilience model against high resolution data collected from a system undergoing regime shift is needed to advance theory toward practical application. As physical requirements bound the possibility space for ecosystems, it is not surprising that biophysical processes play a central role in resilience theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Zell, Chris & Hubbart, Jason A., 2013. "Interdisciplinary linkages of biophysical processes and resilience theory: Pursuing predictability," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 1-10.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:248:y:2013:i:c:p:1-10
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.09.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380012004899
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.09.021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marten Scheffer & Steve Carpenter & Jonathan A. Foley & Carl Folke & Brian Walker, 2001. "Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems," Nature, Nature, vol. 413(6856), pages 591-596, October.
    2. Shevtsov, Jane & Kazanci, Caner & Patten, Bernard C., 2009. "Dynamic environ analysis of compartmental systems: A computational approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(22), pages 3219-3224.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Susanne Moser & Sara Meerow & James Arnott & Emily Jack-Scott, 2019. "The turbulent world of resilience: interpretations and themes for transdisciplinary dialogue," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 21-40, March.
    2. Giulia Sonetti, 2015. "What if We Adopt a Resilience Thinking Approach in the Urban Governance for Emission Reduction?," ERSA conference papers ersa15p1295, European Regional Science Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ian Hodge & William M. Adams, 2016. "Short-Term Projects versus Adaptive Governance: Conflicting Demands in the Management of Ecological Restoration," Land, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-17, November.
    2. Jenerette, G. Darrel & Lal, Rattan, 2007. "Modeled carbon sequestration variation in a linked erosion–deposition system," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 207-216.
    3. Rustici, M. & Ceccherelli, G. & Piazzi, L., 2017. "Predator exploitation and sea urchin bistability: Consequence on benthic alternative states," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 344(C), pages 1-5.
    4. Rodrigues, João & Domingos, Tiago & Conceição, Pedro & Belbute, José, 2005. "Constraints on dematerialisation and allocation of natural capital along a sustainable growth path," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 382-396, September.
    5. Xu Luo & Hong S. He & Yu Liang & Jacob S. Fraser & Jialin Li, 2018. "Mitigating the Effects of Climate Change through Harvesting and Planting in Boreal Forests of Northeastern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    6. Carlos Sanz-Lazaro, 2019. "A Framework to Advance the Understanding of the Ecological Effects of Extreme Climate Events," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, October.
    7. Teh, Su Yean & DeAngelis, Donald L. & Sternberg, Leonel da Silveira Lobo & Miralles-Wilhelm, Fernando R. & Smith, Thomas J. & Koh, Hock-Lye, 2008. "A simulation model for projecting changes in salinity concentrations and species dominance in the coastal margin habitats of the Everglades," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 213(2), pages 245-256.
    8. Grolleau, Gilles & Ibanez, Lisette & Mzoughi, Naoufel, 2020. "Moral judgment of environmental harm caused by a single versus multiple wrongdoers: A survey experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    9. Kong, Xiang-Zhen & Jørgensen, Sven Erik & He, Wei & Qin, Ning & Xu, Fu-Liu, 2013. "Predicting the restoration effects by a structural dynamic approach in Lake Chaohu, China," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 266(C), pages 73-85.
    10. Paul L. G. Vlek & Asia Khamzina & Hossein Azadi & Anik Bhaduri & Luna Bharati & Ademola Braimoh & Christopher Martius & Terry Sunderland & Fatemeh Taheri, 2017. "Trade-Offs in Multi-Purpose Land Use under Land Degradation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-19, November.
    11. Sonia Kéfi & Vishwesha Guttal & William A Brock & Stephen R Carpenter & Aaron M Ellison & Valerie N Livina & David A Seekell & Marten Scheffer & Egbert H van Nes & Vasilis Dakos, 2014. "Early Warning Signals of Ecological Transitions: Methods for Spatial Patterns," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, March.
    12. Monika Winn & Manfred Kirchgeorg & Andrew Griffiths & Martina K. Linnenluecke & Elmar Günther, 2011. "Impacts from climate change on organizations: a conceptual foundation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 157-173, March.
    13. Duncan A. O’Brien & Smita Deb & Gideon Gal & Stephen J. Thackeray & Partha S. Dutta & Shin-ichiro S. Matsuzaki & Linda May & Christopher F. Clements, 2023. "Early warning signals have limited applicability to empirical lake data," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Can Askan Mavi & Nicolas Quérou, 2020. "Common pool resource management and risk perceptions," DEM Discussion Paper Series 20-25, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    15. Shana M. Sundstrom & Craig R. Allen & David G. Angeler, 2020. "Scaling and discontinuities in the global economy," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 319-345, April.
    16. Therese Lindahl & Anne-Sophie Crépin & Caroline Schill, 2016. "Potential Disasters can Turn the Tragedy into Success," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(3), pages 657-676, November.
    17. Yan Cheng & Stefan Oehmcke & Martin Brandt & Lisa Rosenthal & Adrian Das & Anton Vrieling & Sassan Saatchi & Fabien Wagner & Maurice Mugabowindekwe & Wim Verbruggen & Claus Beier & Stéphanie Horion, 2024. "Scattered tree death contributes to substantial forest loss in California," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Mariani, Fabio & Pérez-Barahona, Agustín & Raffin, Natacha, 2010. "Life expectancy and the environment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 798-815, April.
    19. Kong, Xiangzhen & He, Wei & Liu, Wenxiu & Yang, Bin & Xu, Fuliu & Jørgensen, Sven Erik & Mooij, Wolf M., 2016. "Changes in food web structure and ecosystem functioning of a large, shallow Chinese lake during the 1950s, 1980s and 2000s," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 319(C), pages 31-41.
    20. Ignacio C. Fernández & David Manuel-Navarrete & Robinson Torres-Salinas, 2016. "Breaking Resilient Patterns of Inequality in Santiago de Chile: Challenges to Navigate towards a More Sustainable City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-19, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:248:y:2013:i:c:p:1-10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.