What affects ecosystem resilience and loss of biodiversity affect the resilience of the ecosystem?
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. Resilience of human communities can also impact the resilience of ecosystems. Human actions resulting in changes in land use, nutrient cycling, hydrology, or pollution levels can reduce ecosystem resilience. Without significant biodiversity, a loss of organisms performing those roles could easily initiate a domino effect of ecosystem failure. However, a high degree of biodiversity either prevents the gap of role performance or lessens the scope of role loss as many different species overlap in their ecological functions. Ecosystem resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to absorb change and return to the same equilibrium state after a temporary disturbance. Ecosystems with higher species diversity tend to be more resilient. The loss of biodiversity limits ecosystems' evolutionary potential to continue to produce new, therapeutic plant varieties, as well as missing out on potentially useful compounds that are lost before the species that bear them have been recorded. The presence of keystone species influences the biodiversity in a particular ecosystem. If any of these species is lost, it can affect the ability of an ecosystem's resilience or the ability to recover after an environmental disturbance. The identification of such limits is dependent upon knowing how ecosystems react to and buffer external pressures and how well ecosystems recover if they are damaged. The ability of ecosystems to withstand disturbance or to recover from them is generally referred to as 'resilience'.
Ecosystems that are more complex are more resilient, or better able to tolerate and recover from disturbances, than ecosystems that are less complex. To help illustrate why this is, imagine a complex ecosystem with many components and many interactions between those components. Factors that increase resilience include the species richness of the ecosystem, ecological redundancy of species within the ecosystem, and higher humidity levels. The source, persistence, and intensity of the stressor can also impact resilience. 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. Resilience of human communities can also impact the resilience of ecosystems. Human actions resulting in changes in land use, nutrient cycling, hydrology, or pollution levels can reduce ecosystem resilience. Ecosystem resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to absorb change and return to the same equilibrium state after a temporary disturbance. Ecosystems with higher species diversity tend to be more resilient. The loss of an ecosystem's ability to recover from a disturbance whether due to natural events such as hurricanes or volcanic eruptions or due to human influences such as overfishing and pollution endangers the benefits that humans derive from that ecosystem. There are different types of resilience that we need to develop in order to support ourselves during challenging times. These include physical resilience, mental resilience, emotional resilience and social resilience. Ecosystems that are more complex are more resilient, or better able to tolerate and recover from disturbances, than ecosystems that are less complex. To help illustrate why this is, imagine a complex ecosystem with many components and many interactions between those components. Biodiversity loss is caused by five primary drivers: habitat loss, invasive species, overexploitation pollution, climate change associated with global warming. Ecosystem stability and the response of ecosystems to disturbance are of crucial importance for conservation management, especially when the object is to maintain and/or to restore early-succession communities. The presence of keystone species influences the biodiversity in a particular ecosystem. If any of these species is lost, it can affect the ability of an ecosystem's resilience or the ability to recover after an environmental disturbance. Biodiversity is fundamental to sustaining life, supplying critical ecosystem services such as food provisioning, water purification, flood and drought control, nutrient cycling, and climate regulation. These services are essential to support human well-being and economic growth. The biodiversity provides raw materials for the survival of the livelihood within it. Soil fertilization, nutrient recycling, pest and disease regulation, erosion control, and crop and tree pollination are all provided by biodiversity. Conserve habitat to support healthy fish, wildlife, and plant populations and ecosystem functions in a changing climate. Manage species and habitats to protect ecosystem functions and provide sustainable cultural, subsistence recreational, and commercial use in a changing climate.
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