How has the concept of resilience been applied in research across forest regions?

Abstract

There are three common conceptualizations of resilience: persistence, recovery, and adaptability. While researchers apply all three in studies of forest ecosystems, the conceptualization used can have important empirical implications. We conducted a systematic literature review of empirical studies of forest resilience in the US from 2010 to 2020 to determine how researchers conceptualized, measured, and reflected the concept of resilience in reporting and interpreting their results. We determined that most studies defined resilience as recovery to the original state post-disturbance, focused on the state of individual species within the ecosystem rather than the state of the ecosystem itself, and measured the impacts of a single disturbance rather than impacts of multiple disturbances. As climate change and other stressors exacerbate impacts to ecosystems, it is important to move beyond the persistence of or recovery to the original state as the goal for resilient ecosystems and to focus instead on maintaining ecosystem functions and enhancing their adaptability.