Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

New Directions for Understanding the Spatial Resilience of Social–Ecological Systems

  • 20th Anniversary Paper
  • Published:
Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The concept of spatial resilience has brought a new focus on the influence of multi-scale processes on the dynamics of ecosystems. Initial ideas about spatial resilience focused on coral reefs and emphasized escalating anthropogenic disturbances across the broader seascape. This perspective resonated with a new awareness of global drivers of change, such as growth in international trade and shifts in climate, and the need to respond by scaling up governance and management. We review recent trends and emerging ideas in spatial resilience, using coral reefs and dependent communities as exemplars of multi-scale social–ecological systems. Despite recent advances, management and governance of ecosystems remain spatially fragmented and constrained to small scales. Temporally, many interventions still miss or ignore warning signals and struggle to cope with history, politics, long-term cumulative pressures, feedbacks, and sudden surprises. Significant recent progress has been made in understanding the relevance of spatial and temporal scale, heterogeneity, networks, the importance of place, and multi-scale governance. Emerging themes include better integration of ecology and conservation with social and economic science, and incorporating temporal dynamics in spatial analyses. A better understanding of the multi-scale spatial and temporal processes that drive the resilience of linked social-ecosystems will help address the widespread mismatch between the scales of ongoing ecological change and effective long-term governance of land- and seascapes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adam TC, Burkepile DE, Ruttenberg BI, Paddack MJ. 2015. Herbivory and the resilience of Caribbean coral reefs: knowledge gaps and implications for management. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 520:1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger WN, Brown K, Tompkins EL. 2005. The political economy of cross-scale networks in resource co-management. Ecol Soc 10:9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal A, Ostrom E. 2006. Political science and conservation biology: a dialog of the deaf. Conserv Biol 20:681–2.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Alcala AC, Russ GR. 2006. No-take marine reserves and reef fisheries management in the Philippines: a new people power revolution. AMBIO J Hum Environ 35:245–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alencar AAC, Solorzano LA, Nepstad DC. 2004. Modeling forest understory fires in an eastern Amazonian landscape. Ecol Appl 14:S139–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen TFH, Starr TB. 1982. Hierarchy: perspectives for ecological complexity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayre DJ, Hughes TP. 2000. Genotypic diversity and gene flow in brooding and spawning corals along the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Evolution 54:1590–605.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ban NC, Mills M, Tam J, Hicks CC, Klain S, Stoeckl N, Bottrill MC, Levine J, Pressey RL, Satterfield T, Chan KMA. 2013. A social–ecological approach to conservation planning: embedding social considerations. Front Ecol Environ 11:194–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes-Mauthe M, Arita S, Allen SD, Gray SA, Leung P. 2013. The influence of ethnic diversity on social network structure in a common-pool resource system: implications for collaborative management. Ecol Soc 18:23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnosky AD, Hadly EA, Bascompte J, Berlow EL, Brown JH, Fortelius M, Getz WM, Harte J, Hastings A, Marquet PA. 2012. Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere. Nature 486:52–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beer A, Lester L. 2015. Institutional thickness and institutional effectiveness: developing regional indices for policy and practice in Australia. Reg Stud Reg Sci 2:205–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell J, Morrison T. 2015. A comparative analysis of the transformation of governance systems: land-use planning for flood risk. J Environ Plan Policy Manage 17:516–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellwood DR, Hughes TP. 2001. Regional-scale assembly rules and biodiversity of coral reefs. Science 292:1532–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bellwood DR, Hughes TP, Folke C, Nyström M. 2004. Confronting the coral reef crisis. Nature 429:827–33.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berkelmans R, De’ath G, Kininmonth S, Skirving WJ. 2004. A comparison of the 1998 and 2002 coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef: spatial correlation, patterns, and predictions. Coral Reefs 23:74–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkes F. 2002. Cross-scale institutional linkages: perspectives from the bottom up. In: Ostrom E, Dietz T, Dolsak N, Eds. The drama of the commons. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. p 293–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkes F, Hughes TP, Steneck RS, Wilson JA, Bellwood DR, Crona B, Folke C, Gunderson LH, Leslie HM, Norberg J, Nyström M, Olsson P, Österblom H, Scheffer M, Worm B. 2006. Globalization, roving bandits, and marine resources. Science 311:1557–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bodin Ö, Norberg J. 2007. A network approach for analyzing spatially structured populations in fragmented landscape. Landsc Ecol 22:31–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bodin Ö, Tengö M, Norman A, Lundberg J, Elmqvist T. 2006. The value of small size: loss of forest patches and ecological thresholds in southern Madagascar. Ecol Appl 16:440–51.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brasier CM. 2001. Rapid evolution of introduced plant pathogens via interspecific hybridization is leading to rapid evolution of Dutch elm disease and other fungal plant pathogens. Bioscience 51:123–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bridge TC, Hughes TP, Guinotte JM, Bongaerts P. 2013. Call to protect all coral reefs. Nat Clim Change 3:528–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brondizio ES, Ostrom E, Young OR. 2009. Connectivity and the governance of multilevel social–ecological systems: the role of social capital. Annu Rev Environ Resour 34:253–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruderer E, Singh JV. 1996. Organizational evolution, learning, and selection: a genetic-algorithm-based model. Acad Manage J 39:1322–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bulkeley H. 2005. Reconfiguring environmental governance: towards a politics of scales and networks. Polit Geogr 24:875–902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter SR, Turner MG. 2000. Hares and tortoises: interactions of fast and slow variables in ecosystems. Ecosystems 3:495–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter S, Walker B, Anderies JM, Abel N. 2001. From metaphor to measurement: resilience of what to what? Ecosystems 4:765–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter SR, Brock WA, Folke C, van Nes EH, Scheffer M. 2015. Allowing variance may enlarge the safe operating space for exploited ecosystems. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112:14384–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cash DW, Adger WN, Berkes F, Garden P, Lebel L, Olsson P, Pritchard L, Young O. 2006. Scale and cross-scale dynamics: governance and information in a multilevel world. Ecol Soc 11:8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chave J, Levin S. 2003. Scale and scaling in ecological and economic systems. Environ Resour Econ 26:527–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cinner JE, McClanahan TR. 2015. A sea change on the African coast? Preliminary social and ecological outcomes of a governance transformation in Kenyan fisheries. Glob Environ Change 30:133–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cinner JE, McClanahan TR, Daw TM, Graham NAJ, Maina J, Wilson SK, Hughes TP. 2009. Linking social and ecological systems to sustain coral reef fisheries. Curr Biol 19:206–12.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cinner JE, McClanahan TR, MacNeil MA, Graham NAJ, Daw TM, Mukminin A, Feary DA, Rabearisoa AL, Wamukota A, Jiddawi N, Campbell SJ, Baird AH, Januchowski-Hartley FA, Hamed S, Lahari R, Morove T, Kuange J. 2012. Comanagement of coral reef social–ecological systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109:5219–22.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cochrane MA, Laurance WF. 2002. Fire as a large-scale edge effect in Amazonian forests. J Trop Ecol 18:311–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly SR, Baird AH. 2010. Estimating dispersal potential for marine larvae: dynamic models applied to scleractinian corals. Ecology 91:3572–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cowman PF, Bellwood DR. 2013. The historical biogeography of coral reef fishes: global patterns of origination and dispersal. J Biogeogr 40:209–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford HS, Jennings DT. 1989. Predation by birds on spruce budworm Choristoneura fumiferana—functional, numerical, and total responses. Ecology 70:152–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crutzen PJ. 2006. The “anthropocene”. Berlin: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cuddington K, Yodzis P. 2002. Predator–prey dynamics and movement in fractal environments. Am Nat 160:119–34.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming G. 2002. Habitat shape, species invasions, and reserve design: insights from simple models. Conserv Ecol 6:3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming GS. 2011a. The resilience of big river basins. Water Int 36:63–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming GS. 2011b. Spatial resilience in social–ecological systems. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming GS. 2011c. Spatial Resilience: integrating landscape ecology, resilience, and sustainability. Landsc Ecol 26:899–909.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming GS. 2016. Heterarchies: reconciling networks and hierarchies. Trends Ecol Evol 31:622–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming GS, Barnes G. 2007. Characterizing land tenure dynamics by comparing spatial and temporal variation at multiple scales. Landsc Urban Plan 83:219–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming GS, Cumming DHM, Redman CL. 2006. Scale Mismatches in social–ecological systems: causes, consequences, and solutions. Ecol Soc 11:14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming GS, Southworth J, Rondon XJ, Marsik M. 2012. Spatial complexity in fragmenting Amazonian rainforests: do feedbacks from edge effects push forests towards an ecological threshold? Ecol Complex 11:67–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cumming GS, Allen CR, Ban NC, Biggs D, Biggs HC, Cumming DHM, De Vos A, Epstein G, Etienne M, Maciejewski K, Mathevet R, Moore C, Nenadovic M, Schoon M. 2015. Understanding protected area resilience: a multi-scale, social–ecological approach. Ecol Appl 25:299–319.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cutter SL, Barnes L, Berry M, Burton C, Evans E, Tate E, Webb J. 2008. A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Glob Environ Change Hum Policy Dimens 18:598–606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Aloia C, Bogdanowicz S, Majoris J, Harrison R, Buston P. 2013. Self-recruitment in a Caribbean reef fish: a method for approximating dispersal kernels accounting for seascape. Mol Ecol 22:2563–72.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davies J, Davies D. 2010. Origins and evolution of antibiotic resistance. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 74:417–33.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Day J. 2008. The need and practice of monitoring, evaluating and adapting marine planning and management—lessons from the Great Barrier Reef. Mar Policy 32:823–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Day JC, Dobbs K. 2013. Effective governance of a large and complex cross-jurisdictional marine protected area: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Mar Policy 41:14–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Roos AM, Boukal DS, Persson L. 2006. Evolutionary regime shifts in age and size at maturation of exploited fish stocks. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 273:1873–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Vos A, Cumming GS, Moore CA, Maciejewski K, Duckworth G. 2016. The relevance of spatial variation in ecotourism attributes for the economic sustainability of protected areas. Ecosphere 7:e01207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Defeo O, Castrejón M, Pérez-Castañeda R, Castilla JC, Gutiérrez NL, Essington TE, Folke C. 2014. Co-management in Latin American small-scale shellfisheries: assessment from long-term case studies. Fish Fish 17:176–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drake JM, Lodge DM. 2004. Global hot spots of biological invasions: evaluating options for ballast-water management. Proc R Soc Lond Ser B-Biol Sci 271:575–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ekblom A. 2012. Livelihood security, vulnerability and resilience: a historical analysis of Chibuene, Southern Mozambique. Ambio 41:479–89.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Elmhirst T, Connolly SR, Hughes TP. 2009. Connectivity, regime shifts and the resilience of coral reefs. Coral Reefs 28:949–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enfors E. 2013. Social–ecological traps and transformations in dryland agro-ecosystems: using water system innovations to change the trajectory of development. Glob Environ Change Hum Policy Dimens 23:51–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein G, Vogt J, Mincey S, Cox M, Fischer B. 2013. Missing ecology: integrating ecological perspectives with the social–ecological system framework. Int J Commons 7:432–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein G, Pittman J, Alexander SM, Berdej S, Dyck T, Kreitmair U, Raithwell KJ, Villamayor-Tomas S, Vogt J, Armitage D. 2015. Institutional fit and the sustainability of social–ecological systems. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 14:34–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espinoza M, Lédée EJ, Simpfendorfer CA, Tobin AJ, Heupel MR. 2015. Contrasting movements and connectivity of reef-associated sharks using acoustic telemetry: implications for management. Ecol Appl 25:2101–18.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Evans L, Ban NC, Schoon M, Nenadovic M. 2014. Keeping the ‘Great’ in the Great Barrier Reef: large-scale governance of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Int J Commons 8:2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fabinyi M, Pido M, Harani B, Caceres J, Uyami-Bitara A, De las Alas A, Buenconsejo J, Ponce de Leon EM. 2012. Luxury seafood consumption in China and the intensification of coastal livelihoods in Southeast Asia: the live reef fish for food trade in Balabac, Philippines. Asia Pac Viewp 53:118–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fabricius KE. 2005. Effects of terrestrial runoff on the ecology of corals and coral reefs: review and synthesis. Mar Pollut Bull 50:125–46.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer J, Lindenmayer DB, Manning AD. 2006. Biodiversity, ecosystem function, and resilience: ten guiding principles for commodity production landscapes. Front Ecol Environ 4:80–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foale S, Adhuri D, Aliño P, Allison EH, Andrew N, Cohen P, Evans L, Fabinyi M, Fidelman P, Gregory C, Stacey N, Tanzer J, Weeratunge N. 2013. Food security and the Coral Triangle Initiative. Mar Policy 38:174–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folke C, Carpenter S, Elmqvist T, Gunderson L, Holling CS, Walker B. 2002. Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations. AMBIO J Hum Environ 31:437–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folke C, Pritchard L, Berkes F, Colding J, Svedin U. 2007. The problem of fit between ecosystems and institutions: ten years later. Ecol Soc 12:30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaines SD, White C, Carr MH, Palumbi SR. 2010. Designing marine reserve networks for both conservation and fisheries management. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107:18286–93.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gelcich S, Hughes TP, Olsson P, Folke C, Defeo O, Fernández M, Foale S, Gunderson LH, Rodríguez-Sickert C, Scheffer M. 2010. Navigating transformations in governance of Chilean marine coastal resources. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107:16794–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goss J, Cumming GS. 2013. Networks of wildlife translocations in developing countries: an emerging conservation issue? Front Ecol Environ 11:243–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gössling S. 2001. The consequences of tourism for sustainable water use on a tropical island: Zanzibar, Tanzania. J Environ Manage 61:179–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Graham NA, Bellwood DR, Cinner JE, Hughes TP, Norström AV, Nyström M. 2013. Managing resilience to reverse phase shifts in coral reefs. Front Ecol Environ 11:541–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grau R, Kuemmerle T, Macchi L. 2013. Beyond ‘land sparing versus land sharing’: environmental heterogeneity, globalization and the balance between agricultural production and nature conservation. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 5:477–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gruby RL, Basurto X. 2014. Multi-level governance for large marine commons: politics and polycentricity in Palau’s protected area network. Environ Sci Policy 36:48–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guerrero AM, McAllister R, Corcoran J, Wilson KA. 2013. Scale mismatches, conservation planning, and the value of social-network analyses. Conserv Biol 27:35–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn T. 2011. Self-organized governance networks for ecosystem management: who is accountable? Ecol Soc 16:18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn T, Schultz L, Folke C, Olsson P. 2008. Social networks as sources of resilience in social–ecological systems. In: Norberg J, Cumming GS, Eds. Complexity theory for a sustainable future. New York: Columbia University Press. p 119–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedley JD, Roelfsema CM, Chollett I, Harborne AR, Heron SF, Weeks S, Skirving WJ, Strong AE, Eakin CM, Christensen TR. 2016. Remote sensing of coral reefs for monitoring and management: a review. Remote Sens 8:118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hettiarachchi M, Morrison TH, McAlpine C. 2015. Forty-three years of Ramsar and urban wetlands. Glob Environ Change 32:57–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks CC, Cinner JE. 2014. Social, institutional, and knowledge mechanisms mediate diverse ecosystem service benefits from coral reefs. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111:17791–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Holling CS. 1973. Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 4:1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holling CS. 2001. Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems. Ecosystems 4:390–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holling CS, Meffe GK. 1996. Command and control and the pathology of natural resource management. Conserv Biol 10:328–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Honnay O, Verheyen K, Hermy M. 2002. Permeability of ancient forest edges for weedy plant species invasion. For Ecol Manage 161:109–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houk P, Camacho R, Johnson S, McLean M, Maxin S, Anson J, Joseph E, Nedlic O, Luckymis M, Adams K, Hess D, Kabua E, Yalon A, Buthung E, Graham C, Leberer T, Taylor B, van Woesik R. 2015. The micronesia challenge: assessing the relative contribution of stressors on coral reefs to facilitate science-to-management feedback. PLoS ONE 10:e0130823.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes TP. 1994. Catastrophes, phase shifts, and large-scale degradation of a Caribbean coral reef. Sci-AAAS-Wkl Pap Ed 265:1547–51.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes T, Baird A, Dinsdale E, Moltschaniwskyj N, Pratchett M, Tanner J, Willis B. 1999. Patterns of recruitment and abundance of corals along the Great Barrier Reef. Nature 397:59–63.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes TP, Bellwood DR, Folke C, Steneck RS, Wilson J. 2005. New paradigms for supporting the resilience of marine ecosystems. Trends Ecol Evol 20:380–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes TP, Graham NAJ, Jackson JBC, Mumby PJ, Steneck RS. 2010. Rising to the challenge of sustaining coral reef resilience. Trends Ecol Evol 25:633–42.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes TP, Baird AH, Dinsdale EA, Moltschaniwskyj NA, Pratchett MS, Tanner JE, Willis BL. 2012. Assembly rules of reef corals are flexible along a steep climatic gradient. Curr Biol 22:736–41.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes TP, Carpenter S, Rockström J, Scheffer M, Walker B. 2013a. Multiscale regime shifts and planetary boundaries. Trends Ecol Evol 28:389–95.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes TP, Linares C, Dakos V, van de Leemput IA, van Nes EH. 2013b. Living dangerously on borrowed time during slow, unrecognized regime shifts. Trends Ecol Evol 28:149–55.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ings TC, Montoya JM, Bascompte J, Blüthgen N, Brown L, Dormann CF, Edwards F, Figueroa D, Jacob U, Jones JI. 2009. Review: ecological networks—beyond food webs. J Anim Ecol 78:253–69.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson J, Donovan M, Cramer K, Lam V. 2014. Status and trends of Caribbean coral reefs: 1970–2012. Washington, DC: Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jorgenson AK, Dietz T. 2015. Economic growth does not reduce the ecological intensity of human well-being. Sustain Sci 10:149–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keitt TH, Urban DL, Milne BT. 1997. Detecting critical scales in fragmented landscapes. Ecol Soc 1:1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kittinger JN, Finkbeiner EM, Ban NC, Broad K, Carr MH, Cinner JE, Gelcich S, Cornwell ML, Koehn JZ, Basurto X, Fujita R, Caldwell MR, Crowder LB. 2013. Emerging frontiers in social–ecological systems research for sustainability of small-scale fisheries. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 5:352–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kremen C, Niles JO, Dalton MG, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR, Fay JP, Grewal D, Guillery RP. 2000. Economic incentives for rain forest conservation across scales. Science 288:1828–32.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lake PS. 2000. Disturbance, patchiness, and diversity in streams. J N Am Benthol Soc 19:573–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambin EF, Meyfroidt P. 2010. Land use transitions: socio-ecological feedback versus socio-economic change. Land Use Policy 27:108–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambin EF, Meyfroidt P. 2011. Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:3465–72.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lane MB, Morrison TH. 2006. Public interest or private agenda? A meditation on the role of NGOs in environmental policy and management in Australia. J Rural Stud 22:232–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lane MB, McDonald GT, Morrison TH. 2004. Decentralisation and environmental management in Australia: a comment on the prescriptions of the Wentworth group. Aust Geogr Stud 42:103–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laurance WF. 2004. Forest-climate interactions in fragmented tropical landscapes. Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B-Biol Sci 359:345–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laurance WF, Williamson GB. 2001. Positive feedbacks among forest fragmentation, drought, and climate change in the Amazon. Conserv Biol 15:1529–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Layeghifard M, Makarenkov V, Peres-Neto PR. 2015. Spatial and species compositional networks for inferring connectivity patterns in ecological communities. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 24:718–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lebel L, Anderies JM, Campbell B, Folke C, Hatfield-Dodds S, Hughes TP, Wilson J. 2006. Governance and the capacity to manage resilience in regional social–ecological systems. Ecol Soc 11:19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lenton TM, Williams HT. 2013. On the origin of planetary-scale tipping points. Trends Ecol Evol 28:380–2.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lessios H. 2016. The Great Diadema antillarum die-off: 30 years later. Annu Rev Mar Sci 8:267–83.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Levin SA. 1992. The Problem of Pattern and Scale in Ecology. Ecology 73:1943–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin SA. 1999. Fragile dominion: complexity and the commons. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewison RL, Crowder LB, Read AJ, Freeman SA. 2004. Understanding impacts of fisheries bycatch on marine megafauna. Trends Ecol Evol 19:598–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig D, Jones DD, Holling CS. 1978. Qualitative-analysis of insect outbreak systems—spruce budworm and forest. J Anim Ecol 47:315–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur RH, Wilson EO. 1967. The theory of island biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maciejewski K, Cumming G. 2015a. The relevance of socioeconomic interactions for the resilience of protected area networks. Ecosphere 6:9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maciejewski K, Cumming GS. 2015b. Multi-scale network analysis shows scale-dependency of significance of individual protected areas for connectivity. Landsc Ecol 31:1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maciejewski K, De Vos A, Cumming GS, Moore C, Biggs D. 2015. Cross-scale feedbacks and scale mismatches as influences on cultural services and the resilience of protected areas. Ecol Appl 25:11–23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon D, Derickson KD. 2013. From resilience to resourcefulness: a critique of resilience policy and activism. Prog Hum Geogr 37:253–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mas IM. 2015. The fishing footprint of a tourism-based economy: displacing seafood consumption from local to distant waters in the Balearic Islands. J Polit Ecol 22:212.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClanahan TR, Marnane MJ, Cinner JE, Kiene WE. 2006. A comparison of marine protected areas and alternative approaches to coral-reef management. Curr Biol 16:1408–13.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCook LJ, Almany GR, Berumen ML, Day JC, Green AL, Jones GP, Leis JM, Planes S, Russ GR, Sale PF, Thorrold SR. 2009. Management under uncertainty: guide-lines for incorporating connectivity into the protection of coral reefs. Coral Reefs 28:353–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLeod E, Salm R, Green A, Almany J. 2009. Designing marine protected area networks to address the impacts of climate change. Front Ecol Environ 7:362–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller AD, Chesson P. 2009. Coexistence in disturbance-prone communities: how a resistance-resilience trade-off generates coexistence via the storage effect. Am Nat 173:E30–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills M, Pressey RL, Weeks R, Foale S, Ban NC. 2010. A mismatch of scales: challenges in planning for implementation of marine protected areas in the Coral Triangle. Conserv Lett 3:291–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison TH. 2006. Pursuing rural sustainability at the regional level: key lessons from the literature on institutions, integration, and the environment. J Plan Lit 21:143–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison TH. 2007. Multiscalar governance and regional environmental management in Australia. Space Polity 11:227–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison T. 2014. Developing a regional governance index: the institutional potential of rural regions. J Rural Stud 35:101–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mumby PJ, Hastings A, Edwards HJ. 2007. Thresholds and the resilience of Caribbean coral reefs. Nature 450:98–101.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nepstad D, Carvalho G, Barros AC, Alencar A, Capobianco JP, Bishop J, Moutinho P, Lefebvre P, Silva UL Jr, Prins E. 2001. Road paving, fire regime feedbacks, and the future of Amazon forests. For Ecol Manage 154:395–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nepstad D, Stickler C, Soares-Filho B, Brando P, Merry F. 2008. Ecological, economic, and climatic tipping points of an Amazon forest dieback. Philos Trans R Soc B-Biol Sci 363:1737–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nystrom M, Folke C. 2001. Spatial resilience of coral reefs. Ecosystems 4:406–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nyström M, Norström AV, Blenckner T, de la Torre-Castro M, Eklöf JS, Folke C, Österblom H, Steneck RS, Thyresson M, Troell M. 2012. Confronting feedbacks of degraded marine ecosystems. Ecosystems 15:695–710.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olsson P, Folke C, Hughes TP. 2008. Navigating the transition to ecosystem-based management of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:9489–94.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Osgood G, Baum J. 2015. Reef sharks: recent advances in ecological understanding to inform conservation. J Fish Biol 87:1489–523.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Österblom H, Folke C. 2013. Emergence of global adaptive governance for stewardship of regional marine resources. Ecol Soc 18:4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom E. 1990. Governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom E. 2009. A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social–ecological systems. Science 352:419–22.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom E, Janssen MA, Anderies JM. 2007. Going beyond panaceas. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:15176–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Palumbi SR. 2001. Humans as the world’s greatest evolutionary force. Science 293:1786–90.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pandolfi JM, Bradbury RH, Sala E, Hughes TP, Bjorndal KA, Cooke RG, McArdle D, McClenachan L, Newman MJ, Paredes G. 2003. Global trajectories of the long-term decline of coral reef ecosystems. Science 301:955–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pfaff A, Robalino J, Walker R, Aldrich S, Caldas M, Reis E, Perz S, Bohrer C, Arima E, Laurance W, Kirby K. 2007. Roads and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. J Reg Sci 47:109–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips BL, Brown GP, Webb JK, Shine R. 2006. Invasion and the evolution of speed in toads. Nature 439:803.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Polis GA, Power ME, Huxel GR. 2004. Food webs at the landscape level. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollnac R, Christie P, Cinner JE, Dalton T, Daw TM, Forrester GE, Graham NAJ, McClanahan TR. 2010. Marine reserves as linked social–ecological systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107:18262–5.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Pressey RL, Cabeza M, Watts ME, Cowling RM, Wilson KA. 2007. Conservation planning in a changing world. Trends Ecol Evol 22:583–92.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pritchard L, Sanderson SE. 2002. The dynamics of political discourse in seeking sustainability. In: Gunderson LH, Holling CS, Eds. Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Washington, DC: Island Press. p 147–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radeloff VC, Mladenoff DJ, Boyce MS. 2000. The changing relation of landscape patterns and jack pine budworm populations during an outbreak. Oikos 90:417–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Remengesau T, Camacho F, Note K, Urusemal J, Fital B. 2006. Declaration of commitment: the micronesia challenge. Koror, Palau: Palau International Coral Reef Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricart S, Clarimont S. 2016. Modelling the links between irrigation, ecosystem services and rural development in pursuit of social legitimacy: results from a territorial analysis of the Neste System (Hautes-Pyrénées, France). J Rural Stud 43:1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rinaldi S, Scheffer M. 2000. Geometric analysis of ecological models with slow and fast processes. Ecosystems 3:507–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rockstrom J, Steffen W, Noone K, Persson A, Chapin FS, Lambin EF, Lenton TM, Scheffer M, Folke C, Schellnhuber HJ, Nykvist B, de Wit CA, Hughes T, van der Leeuw S, Rodhe H, Sorlin S, Snyder PK, Costanza R, Svedin U, Falkenmark M, Karlberg L, Corell RW, Fabry VJ, Hansen J, Walker B, Liverman D, Richardson K, Crutzen P, Foley JA. 2009. A safe operating space for humanity. Nature 461:472–5.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rodríguez JP, Beard TD, Bennett EM, Cumming GS, Cork SJ, Agard J, Dobson AP, Peterson GD. 2006. Trade-offs across space, time, and ecosystem services. Ecol Soc 11:28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen F, Olsson P. 2013. Institutional entrepreneurs, global networks, and the emergence of international institutions for ecosystem-based management: the Coral Triangle Initiative. Mar Policy 38:195–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross S, Wall G. 1999. Evaluating ecotourism: the case of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Tour Manage 20:673–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryan P, Ernstson H, Janssen MA, Elmqvist T, Bodin O, Anderies JM, McAllister RJ, Olsson P. 2006. Toward a network perspective of the study of resilience in social–ecological systems. Ecol Soc 11:15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders DA, Briggs SV. 2002. Nature grows in straight lines—or does she? What are the consequences of the mismatch between human-imposed linear boundaries and ecosystem boundaries? An Australian example. Landsc Urban Plan 61:71–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M. 2009. Critical transitions in nature and society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, van Nes EH, Holmgren M, Hughes T. 2008. Pulse-driven loss of top-down control: the critical-rate hypothesis. Ecosystems 11:226–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, Bascompte J, Brock WA, Brovkin V, Carpenter SR, Dakos V, Held H, van Nes EH, Rietkerk M, Sugihara G. 2009. Early-warning signals for critical transitions. Nature 461:53–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, Barrett S, Carpenter S, Folke C, Green A, Holmgren M, Hughes T, Kosten S, Van de Leemput I, Nepstad D. 2015. Creating a safe operating space for iconic ecosystems. Science 347:1317–19.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schoennagel T, Smithwick EAH, Turner MG. 2008. Landscape heterogeneity following large fires: insights from Yellowstone National Park, USA. Int J Wildl Fire 17:742–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoon M, Fabricius C, Anderies JM, Nelson M. 2011. Synthesis: vulnerability, traps, and transformations-long-term perspectives from archaeology. Ecol Soc 16:24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short C. 2015. Micro-level crafting of institutions within integrated catchment management: early lessons of adaptive governance from a catchment-based approach case study in England. Environ Sci Policy 53:130–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Southworth J, Cumming GS, Marsik M, Binford MW. 2006. Linking spatial and temporal variation at multiple scales in a heterogeneous landscape. Prof Geogr 58:406–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stauffer D. 1985. Introduction to percolation theory. London, UK: Taylor and Francis.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Steffen W, Crutzen PJ, McNeill JR. 2007. The Anthropocene: are humans now overwhelming the great forces of nature. AMBIO J Hum Environ 36:614–21.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steneck RS. 2009. Marine conservation: moving beyond Malthus. Curr Biol 19:R117–19.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steneck RS, Hughes TP, Cinner JE, Adger WN, Arnold SN, Berkes F, Boudreau SA, Brown K, Folke C, Gunderson L, Olsson P, Scheffer M, Stephenson E, Walker B, Wilson J, Worm B. 2011. Creation of a gilded trap by the high economic value of the Maine lobster fishery. Conserv Biol 25:904–12.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tatem AJ. 2009. The worldwide airline network and the dispersal of exotic species: 2007–2010. Ecography 32:94–102.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Trippel EA. 1995. Age at maturity as a stress indicator in fisheries. Bioscience 45:759–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner MG, Hargrove WW, Gardner RH, Romme WH. 1994. Effects of fire on landscape heterogeneity in Yellowstone-National-Park, Wyoming. J Veg Sci 5:731–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner MG, Gardner RH, O’Neill RV. 2001. Landscape ecology in theory and practice: pattern and process. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner RA, Fitzsimmons C, Forster J, Mahon R, Peterson A, Stead SM. 2014. Measuring good governance for complex ecosystems: perceptions of coral reef-dependent communities in the Caribbean. Glob Environ Change 29:105–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Urban D, Keitt T. 2001. Landscape connectivity: a graph-theoretic perspective. Ecology 82:1205–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van de Leemput IA, Hughes TP, Van Nes E, Scheffer M. 2016. Multiple feedbacks and the prevalence of alternate stable states in coral reefs. Coral Reefs 35:857–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Nes EH, Scheffer M. 2005. Implications of spatial heterogeneity for catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems. Ecology 86:1797–807.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Virah-Sawmy M, Gillson L, Willis KJ. 2009. How does spatial heterogeneity influence resilience to climatic changes? Ecological dynamics in southeast Madagascar. Ecol Monogr 79:557–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker B, Barrett S, Polasky S, Galaz V, Folke C, Engstrom G, Ackerman F, Arrow K, Carpenter S, Chopra K. 2009. Looming global-scale failures and missing institutions. Science 325:1345–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wasserman S, Faust K. 1994. Social network analysis—methods and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • White AT, Aliño PM, Cros A, Fatan NA, Green AL, Teoh SJ, Laroya L, Peterson N, Tan S, Tighe S. 2014. Marine protected areas in the Coral Triangle: progress, issues, and options. Coast Manage 42:87–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitney KD, Gabler CA. 2008. Rapid evolution in introduced species, ‘invasive traits’ and recipient communities: challenges for predicting invasive potential. Divers Distrib 14:569–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiedenmann J, D’Angelo C, Smith EG, Hunt AN, Legiret F-E, Postle AD, Achterberg EP. 2013. Nutrient enrichment can increase the susceptibility of reef corals to bleaching. Nat Clim Change 3:160–4.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wiens JA. 1977. Competition and Variable Environments. Am Sci 65:590–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyatt AS, Lowe RJ, Humphries S, Waite AM. 2013. Particulate nutrient fluxes over a fringing coral reef: source–sink dynamics inferred from carbon to nitrogen ratios and stable isotopes. Limnol Oceanogr 58:409–27.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Young OR, Osherenko G, Ekstrom J, Crowder LB, Ogden J, Wilson JA, Day JC, Douvere F, Ehler CN, McLeod KL. 2007. Solving the crisis in ocean governance: place-based management of marine ecosystems. Environ Sci Policy Sustain Dev 49:20–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Steve Carpenter and Monica Turner for their invitation to contribute this article and to Jerker Lokrantz for his assistance in preparing Figure 1, Rhonda Banks of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for providing Figure 3, and Cindy Huchery for her assistance in preparing the manuscript. Comments from three anonymous reviewers helped strengthen the manuscript. This research was funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia

    Graeme S. Cumming, Tiffany H. Morrison & Terence P. Hughes

  2. Percy FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa

    Graeme S. Cumming

Authors
  1. Graeme S. Cumming
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tiffany H. Morrison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Terence P. Hughes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Graeme S. Cumming.

Additional information

Author contributions

GSC, THM, and TPH contributed equally in all areas to writing this article.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cumming, G.S., Morrison, T.H. & Hughes, T.P. New Directions for Understanding the Spatial Resilience of Social–Ecological Systems. Ecosystems 20, 649–664 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0089-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0089-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation