Can an ecosystem be both resilient and resistant and which species are the most resilient and resistant?
Yes, an ecosystem can be both resilient and resistant. Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to recover from a disturbance, while resistance is the ability of an ecosystem to withstand a disturbance. For example, a prairie ecosystem may be resistant to fire because it is dominated by fire-tolerant grasses and wildflowers. However, if a fire is too severe, the ecosystem may not be able to recover quickly.
In general, species that are generalists and have a wide range of habitats are more likely to be resilient and resistant. This is because they are more adaptable to change. For example, coyotes are generalist predators that can live in a variety of habitats, including forests, grasslands, and deserts. As a result, they are more likely to survive and recover from disturbances such as fire, drought, and habitat loss.
Here are some other examples of resilient and resistant species:
- Plants: grasses, wildflowers, trees with thick bark, such as oaks and pines
- Animals: coyotes, white-tailed deer, raccoons, opossums, insects
- Microbes: bacteria, fungi
These species are all able to withstand and recover from a variety of disturbances, including fire, drought, flood, and habitat loss. They play an important role in maintaining the resilience of ecosystems.
It is important to note that no ecosystem is perfectly resilient or resistant to disturbances. Climate change, habitat loss, and other human-caused stressors are making it more difficult for ecosystems to cope with disturbances. However, by protecting and restoring resilient ecosystems and resistant species, we can help to ensure that they can continue to provide important benefits to people and nature.
Highly productive communities, dominated by fast-growing plants, tend to have high resilience and low resistance, with the opposite being true for communities dominated by slow-growing plants. In general, resistance refers to the ability of a population to withstand the disturbance, whereas resilience refers to the ability to recover after suffering from the disturbance. A resilient ecosystem offers many more opportunities for animal, plant or microbial species to become established or be reintroduced. More generally, ecosystem resilience provides protection for the environment, and thus a safeguard for sustainability.However, it is also true that the resistance of an ecosystem to changing conditions and the rate of recovery following some disruptive event are generally considered major components of resilience that can in principle be expressed in quantitative terms. Microscopic, moss-inhabiting animals called tardigrades can withstand all of these conditions, making them one of the most resilient animal species on the planet. They can be found in any of Earth's ecosystems, though most commonly live in damp environments like moss and lichens. Biologically diverse communities are also more likely to contain species that confer resilience to that ecosystem because as a community accumulates species, there is a higher chance of any one of them having traits that enable them to adapt to a changing environment.Greater biodiversity in ecosystems, species, and individuals leads to greater stability. For example, species with high genetic diversity and many populations that are adapted to a wide variety of conditions are more likely to be able to weather disturbances, disease, and climate change.
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