Nurturing resilient forest biodiversity: nest webs as complex adaptive systems

Ecology and Society: a journal of integrative science for resilience and sustainability

article

José Tomás Ibarra¹  Kristina L. Cockle³  Tomás A. Altamirano³  Yntze van der Hoek⁶  Suzanne W. Simard³  Cristián Bonacic⁸  Kathy Martin³ 

[1] ECOS ,(Ecology-Complexity-Society) Laboratory, Center for Local Development ,(CEDEL) & Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research ,(CIIR), Villarrica Campus, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile;Millennium Nucleus Center for the Socioeconomic Impact of Environmental Policies ,(CESIEP) & Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability ,(CAPES), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile;Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia;Instituto de Biología Subtropical;ECOS ,(Ecology-Complexity-Society) Laboratory, Center for Local Development ,(CEDEL), Villarrica Campus, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile;Universidad Regional Amazónica IKIAM;Dian Fossey Fund International;Department of Ecosystems and The Environment & School of Veterinary Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile;Environment and Climate Change Canada, Pacific Wildlife Research Centre

关键词: Americas;    cavity-using vertebrates;    complexity;    forest management;    memory;    panarchy;    resilience;    social-ecological systems;   

DOI  :  10.5751/ES-11590-250227

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Resilience Alliance Publications

【 摘 要 】

Forests are complex adaptive systems in which properties at higher levels emerge from localized networks of many entities interacting at lower levels, allowing the development of multiple ecological pathways and processes. Cavity-nesters exist within networks known as “nest webs” that link trees, excavators, e.g. woodpeckers, and nonexcavators (many songbirds, ducks, raptors, and other organisms) at the community level. We use the idea of panarchy (interacting adaptive cycles at multiple spatio-temporal scales) to expand the nest web concept to levels from single tree to biome. We then assess properties of nest web systems (redundancy, heterogeneity, memory, uncertainty, and nonlinearity) using examples from our studies in temperate, subtropical, and tropical forests of the Americas. Although nest webs from Chile, Canada, Argentina, and Ecuador have independent evolutionary histories, structures, and disturbance regimes, they share the main properties of complex adaptive systems. Heterogeneity, redundancy, and memory allow nest web systems to absorb some degree of disturbance without undergoing a regime shift; that is, without changing their basic structures and functions, i.e., the system’s identity. Understanding nest webs as complex adaptive systems will inform management practices to nurture the resilience of forest biodiversity in the face of local, regional, and global social-ecological changes.

【 授权许可】

Others