Learn more about our eBooks program and retail partners.
Foundations of Ecological Resilience
Edited by:
Lance H Gunderson
Emory University
Craig R Allen
University of Nebraska
CS Holling
University of Florida
368 pages
Publisher:
Island Press, USA
Ecological resilience provides a theoretical foundation for understanding how complex systems adapt to and recover from localised disturbances like hurricanes, fires, pest outbreaks, and floods, as well as large-scale perturbations such as climate change. Ecologists have developed resilience theory over the past three decades in an effort to explain surprising and nonlinear dynamics of complex adaptive systems. Resilience theory is especially important to environmental scientists for its role in underpinning adaptive management approaches to ecosystem and resource management.
Foundations of Ecological Resilience is a collection of the most important articles on the subject of ecological resilience—those writings that have defined and developed basic concepts in the field and help explain its importance and meaning for scientists and researchers.
The book's editors, who are leading experts on the subject, compile and synthesise the key scientific papers that have led to our current understanding of resilience, and provide concise commentary that discusses the impact and importance of each contribution. The focus of the book is on resilience of ecological systems, and the organisation is both chronological and categorical.
The book's three sections cover:
articles that have shaped or define the concepts and theories of resilience, including key papers that broke new conceptual ground and contributed novel ideas to the field
examples that demonstrate ecological resilience in a range of ecosystems
articles that present practical methods for understanding and managing nonlinear ecosystem dynamics
Foundations of Ecological Resilience is an important contribution to our collective understanding of resilience and an invaluable resource for students and scholars in ecology, wildlife ecology, conservation biology, sustainability, environmental science, public policy, and related fields.
Lance H. Gunderson is an associate professor and founding chair of the Department of Environmental Studies, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Craig R. Allen is the leader of the Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife
Research Unit and an associate professor in the School of Natural Resources at
the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln.
C. S. (Buzz) Holling is Emeritus Eminent Scholar Professor in Ecological Sciences at University of Florida, in Gainesville.
Early Alert
Connect with us
Top
Email this page
