Foundations of Ecological Resilience

by Lance H. Gunderson (Editor), Craig Reece Allen (Editor), C. S. Holling (Editor)

Overview

Ecological resilience provides a theoretical foundation for understanding how complex systems adapt to and recover from localized disturbances like hurricanes, fires, pest outbreaks, and floods, as well as large-scale perturbations such as climate change. Ecologists have developed resilience theory over the past three decades in an effort to explain surprising and nonlinear dynamics of complex adaptive systems. Resilience theory is especially important to environmental scientists for its role in underpinning
adaptive management approaches to ecosystem and resource management.

Foundations of Ecological Resilience is a collection of the most important articles on the subject of ecological resilience—those writings that have defined and developed basic concepts in the field and help explain its importance and meaning for scientists and researchers.

The book’s three sections cover articles that have shaped or defined the concepts and theories of resilience, including key papers that broke new conceptual ground and contributed novel ideas to the field; examples that demonstrate ecological resilience in a range of ecosystems; and articles that present practical methods for understanding and managing nonlinear ecosystem dynamics.

Foundations of Ecological Resilience is an important contribution to our collective understanding of resilience and an invaluable resource for students and scholars in ecology, wildlife ecology, conservation biology, sustainability, environmental science, public policy, and related fields.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597265102
Publisher:	Island Press
Publication date:	11/03/2009
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lance H. Gunderson is Associate Professor and founding Chair of the Department of Environmental Studies, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Craig R. Allen is the leader of the Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife
Research Unit and an associate professor in the School of Natural Resources at
the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln.

C. S. (Buzz) Holling is Emeritus Eminent Scholar Professor in Ecological Sciences at University of Florida, in Gainesville.

Editorial Reviews

"It is exciting to hold in one's hands a single volume containing thirty-five years of the key article s on ecological resilience. This book will help serious students to understand the foundations, and the cutting edges, of research on ecological resilience."

Elinor Ostrom

"Foundations of Ecological Resilience is a set key papers that capture the major conceptual advances and their application in the development of resilience science. Gunderson, Allen, and Holling provide overview chapters that place these classics in context. This volume is essential reading for students and scholars applying resilience theory to modern issues."

F. Stuart Chapin III

"Buzz Holling's seminal 1973 paper revolutionized the theory of management of environmental systems, emphasizing forces that confer resilience in the face of disturbance. Resilience theory has matured into a movement in ecological and economic theory and fundamentally influencing management. This is an essential collection of key papers in the evolution toward a science of sustainability. "

Simon Levin

"I will start by saying I wish this book had been published ten years earlier—it would have saved a lot of arguments over what terms such as resilience, stability, elasticity, resistance all mean. ... So, too, will this volume be a classic."

Quarterly Review of Biology

"This is a book for our turbulent times. It is about expecting the unexpected. It marks a transformation away from misleading equilibrial theories of ecology and economics that still dominate today. While realistic about the magnitude of the ecological problems humans face, Foundations of Ecological Resilience offers principles to guide the management and governance of the unpredictable ecosystems in which we live."

Nick Abel

"This is a book for our turbulent times. It is about expecting the unexpected. It marks a transformation away from misleading equilibrial theories of ecology and economics that still dominate today. While realistic about the magnitude of the ecological problems humans face, Foundations of Ecological Resilience offers principles to guide the management and governance of the unpredictable ecosystems in which we live."

CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra, Australia - Nick Abel