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Operationalizing Ecological Resilience Concepts for Managing Species and Ecosystems at Risk REVIEW published: 12 July 2019 doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00241 Operationalizing Ecological Resilience Concepts for Managing Species and Ecosystems at Risk Jeanne C. Chambers 1*, Craig R. Allen 2 and Samuel A. Cushman 3 1 U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Grasslands, Shrublands and Deserts Program, Reno, NV, United States, 2 U.S. Geological Survey, Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, United States, 3 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forest and Woodland Ecosystems Program, Flagstaff, AZ, United States 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 Edited by: Anouschka R. Hof, of a resilience-based framework, beginning with managing for adaptive capacity and Wageningen University & selecting an appropriate spatial extent and grain. Critical elements include developing Research, Netherlands an understanding of the factors influencing the general and ecological resilience of Reviewed by: ecosystems and landscapes, the landscape context and spatial resilience, pattern Brendan Alexander Harmon, Louisiana State University, and process interactions and their variability, and relationships among ecological and United States spatial resilience and the capacity to support habitats and species. We suggest that a Matthew Thompson, Rocky Mountain Research Station, spatially explicit approach, which couples geospatial information on general and spatial United States resilience to disturbance with information on resources, habitats, or species, provides *Correspondence: the foundation for resilience-based management. We provide a case study from the Jeanne C. Chambers sagebrush biome that illustrates the use of geospatial information on ecological and [email protected] spatial resilience for prioritizing management actions and determine effective strategies. Specialty section: Keywords: ecological resilience, spatial resilience, landscape context, ecosystems, natural resources This article was submitted to management, restoration, conservation, management framework Biogeography and Macroecology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution INTRODUCTION Received: 14 February 2019 Accepted: 11 June 2019 Globally ecosystems are changing at an unprecedented rate largely due to human impacts, Published: 12 July 2019 including land development and use, pollutants, invasive species, altered disturbance regimes, Citation: increasing CO2, and climate change. Changes in species distributions and the emergence of Chambers JC, Allen CR and novel ecosystem states increasingly challenge our capacity to manage for biodiversity, ecosystem Cushman SA (2019) Operationalizing Ecological Resilience Concepts for functioning, and human well-being (IPCC, 2014; Pecl et al., 2017). Effective management Managing Species and Ecosystems at of ecosystems in this era of rapid change requires an understanding of an ecosystem’s Risk. Front. Ecol. Evol. 7:241. response not only to these stressors and disturbances but also to management actions. Clear doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00241 formulation and application of ecological resilience concepts can provide the basis for managing Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | www.frontiersin.org 1 July 2019 | Volume 7 | Article 241 Chambers et al. Operationalizing Ecological Resilience Concepts ecosystems to enhance their capacity to cope with stressors TABLE 1 | Common definitions for understanding ecological resilience concepts. and disturbances and help guide them through periods of Adaptive capacity – The ability of a system to maintain critical functions and reorganization. Periods of reorganization provide both crisis and processes during changing and/or novel environmental conditions opportunity, and management during these periods is critical. (Angeler and Allen, 2016). Ecological resilience concepts (see Table 1 for definitions) can Alternate states – An alternative configuration of a system that differs in terms provide the basis for increasing the capacity of systems to absorb, of species composition and abundance, patterns, processes, and feedbacks. persist, and adapt to inevitable and unpredictable change (Curtin Stable states are alternative states that are separated by thresholds and Parker, 2014), and for taking advantage of management (Lewontin, 1969). opportunities to transform systems to more desirable states. Ecological resilience – A measure of the amount of change needed to change an ecosystem from one set of processes and structures to a different set of Operationalizing ecological resilience concepts for processes and structures, or the amount of disturbance that a system can management has been difficult because a framework for withstand before it shifts into a new regime or alternative stable state (Holling, evaluating how ecosystem responses to disturbances and 1973). In applied ecology, ecological resilience is also used as a measure of the stressors vary over large heterogeneous landscapes and capacity of an ecosystem to regain its fundamental structure, processes, and how this variation is related to ecological resilience has functioning (or remain largely unchanged) despite stresses, disturbances, or invasive species (e.g., Hirota et al., 2011; Chambers et al., 2014a; Pope et al., not been well developed or translated for the management 2014; Seidl et al., 2016). community. Applying these concepts at scales relevant to General resilience – A general and generic property of systems that describes management is becoming increasingly important as the the broad ability of a system to regain fundamental structures, processes, and scale and magnitude of ecosystem change increase. To date, functioning following disturbances (based on Folke et al., 2010). General much of the literature on ecological resilience has focused on resilience is a function of environmental characteristics and ecosystem attributes theory, definitions, and broad conceptualizations regarding and processes and is a useful concept for describing differences among ecosystems at landscape scales. the application of resilience concepts (e.g., Gunderson, Resistance – Capacity of an ecosystem to retain its fundamental structure, 2000; Folke et al., 2004, 2010; Walker et al., 2004; Folke, processes and functioning (or remain largely unchanged) despite stresses, 2006; Gunderson et al., 2010). Much of the research has disturbances, or invasive species (Folke et al., 2004). focused on the importance of species diversity and species Resistance to invasive species – The biotic and biotic attributes and functional attributes in affecting responses to stress and ecological processes of an ecosystem that limit the population growth of an disturbance at fairly small (local) scales (e.g., Angeler invading species (D’Antonio and Thomsen, 2004). and Allen, 2016; Baho et al., 2017; cf. Pope et al., 2014; Regime shifts – Changes in the processes and feedbacks that confer dynamic Roberts et al., 2018). structure to a given state of a system. A change in the regime of a system may result in a state change, depending on the type and magnitude of regime change Recently, two applications of ecological resilience have and initial state of the system. come to the forefront and are being used at scales relevant Spatial resilience – A measure of how spatial attributes, processes, and to management. Assessments of general resilience, or the feedbacks vary over space and time in response to disturbances and affect the broad ability of systems to maintain fundamental structures, resilience of ecosystems (based on Allen et al., 2016). In a landscape context, processes, and functioning following disturbances (after Folke spatial resilience is a function of landscape composition and configuration. et al., 2010), are being used to evaluate differences in the State-and-transition model – A method to organize and communicate responses of the ecosystems that comprise landscapes and complex information about the relationships among vegetation, soil, animals, hydrology, disturbances (fire, lack of fire, herbivory, drought, unusually wet identify which ecosystems are likely to exhibit critical transitions periods, insects, and disease), and management actions on an ecological site to alternative states (e.g., Hirota et al., 2011; Brooks et al., (Caudle et al., 2013). 2016; Levine et al., 2016). These assessments are based on Threshold – The point at which there is an abrupt change in ecosystem states, an understanding of the relationships among an ecosystem’s or where small changes in one or more external conditions produce large and environmental characteristics, attributes and processes, and persistent responses in an ecosystem (Allen et al., 2016). When an ecosystem responses to stressors and disturbances (Chambers et al., crosses a threshold or tipping point, its capacity to adapt to and cope
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