Journal
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Volume 14, Issue 7, Pages 369-378Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/fee.1311
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Funding
- Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research
- Joint Fire Science Program [11-1-1-7, GRIN 12-3-10]
- Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada [RGPIN 341774-20]
- Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program [RC-2109]
- US Geological Survey's Ecosystems and Climate & Land Use Change mission areas, Western Mountain Initiative
- US National Park Service-George Melendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship
- US National Science Foundation [DEB-EF-0622770, IIA-0966472, ARC-1023669]
- Wilderness Research Foundation
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1542150, 1430134, 1026415] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Office of Polar Programs (OPP) [1545558] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Office Of Internatl Science &Engineering
- Office Of The Director [0966472, GRANTS:13780692] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Ecological memory is central to how ecosystems respond to disturbance and is maintained by two types of legacies - information and material. Species life-history traits represent an adaptive response to disturbance and are an information legacy; in contrast, the abiotic and biotic structures (such as seeds or nutrients) - produced by single disturbance events are material legacies. Disturbance characteristics that support or maintain these legacies enhance ecological resilience and maintain a safe operating space for ecosystem recovery. However, legacies can be lost or diminished as disturbance regimes and environmental conditions change, generating a resilience debt that manifests only after the system is disturbed. Strong effects of ecological memory on post-disturbance dynamics imply that contingencies (effects that cannot be predicted with certainty) of individual disturbances, interactions among disturbances, and climate variability combine to affect ecosystem resilience. We illustrate these concepts and introduce a novel ecosystem resilience framework with examples of forest disturbances, primarily from North America. Identifying legacies that support resilience in a particular ecosystem can help scientists and resource managers anticipate when disturbances may trigger abrupt shifts in forest ecosystems, and when forests are likely to be resilient.
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