{"title":"Geographical boundaries and historical explanations of within-scale resilience","authors":"Colby J. Clark","doi":"10.1016/j.ecocom.2023.101062","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Historically, the idea that ecosystems possess geographical boundaries has been dismissed as both naïve and impractical. But advancements in remote sensing have led to the reliable detection of spatial regimes that seem to provide early warning of a potential critical transition. This invites a reexamination of the role geographical boundaries play in explanations of the resilience concept. Despite apparent ontological imprecision, defining the boundaries of an ecosystem geographically, instead of dynamically (i.e., as collections of feedback mechanisms), dilates explanations of resilience to improve understanding of the history of contingent causal dynamics that culminate in emergent self-organization at a single scale. To demonstrate the utility of geographical boundaries, three related discussions connect spatial resilience theory with elements of island biogeography theory: (1) the function of stepping-stones as ecological filters, (2) mobile links as examples of the rescue effect, and (3) the way assembly rules and successive equilibria map onto the forward loop of the adaptive cycle heuristic.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50559,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Complexity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecological Complexity","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1476945X2300034X","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Historically, the idea that ecosystems possess geographical boundaries has been dismissed as both naïve and impractical. But advancements in remote sensing have led to the reliable detection of spatial regimes that seem to provide early warning of a potential critical transition. This invites a reexamination of the role geographical boundaries play in explanations of the resilience concept. Despite apparent ontological imprecision, defining the boundaries of an ecosystem geographically, instead of dynamically (i.e., as collections of feedback mechanisms), dilates explanations of resilience to improve understanding of the history of contingent causal dynamics that culminate in emergent self-organization at a single scale. To demonstrate the utility of geographical boundaries, three related discussions connect spatial resilience theory with elements of island biogeography theory: (1) the function of stepping-stones as ecological filters, (2) mobile links as examples of the rescue effect, and (3) the way assembly rules and successive equilibria map onto the forward loop of the adaptive cycle heuristic.
期刊介绍:
Ecological Complexity is an international journal devoted to the publication of high quality, peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of biocomplexity in the environment, theoretical ecology, and special issues on topics of current interest. The scope of the journal is wide and interdisciplinary with an integrated and quantitative approach. The journal particularly encourages submission of papers that integrate natural and social processes at appropriately broad spatio-temporal scales.
Ecological Complexity will publish research into the following areas:
• All aspects of biocomplexity in the environment and theoretical ecology
• Ecosystems and biospheres as complex adaptive systems
• Self-organization of spatially extended ecosystems
• Emergent properties and structures of complex ecosystems
• Ecological pattern formation in space and time
• The role of biophysical constraints and evolutionary attractors on species assemblages
• Ecological scaling (scale invariance, scale covariance and across scale dynamics), allometry, and hierarchy theory
• Ecological topology and networks
• Studies towards an ecology of complex systems
• Complex systems approaches for the study of dynamic human-environment interactions
• Using knowledge of nonlinear phenomena to better guide policy development for adaptation strategies and mitigation to environmental change
• New tools and methods for studying ecological complexity