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Resilience, Self-Organization, Complexity and Pattern Formation

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Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands

Abstract

Clarity of definitions is fundamental to the successful completion of any interdisciplinary project. In this chapter, we focus on defining a number of key terms that recur throughout the volume, and thus it acts as both a foundation and glossary for understanding the material covered. Ideas of resilience, self-organization and complexity are widely used across in constituent disciplines discussed in Chap. 1, but their use varies and we attempt to define this variation and thus the context of use in the book. There is also a strong emphasis on pattern, so we provide here an initial definition, to be followed up in more detail in Chaps. 7 and 8. We then move onto the specific nature of drylands and the need to understand land degradation within them and through them. How the mode of study affects our understanding is the next theme, in particular how case studies based in different places can be generalized, given the variations in landscape and vegetation type within them. Following an initial summary of the preceding material to evaluate why self-organization and complexity are useful frameworks for understanding patterns and processes in drylands, the chapter concludes with an overview of the deterministic and stochastic frameworks for understanding pattern.

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Acknowledgments

This chapter is a contribution to the book Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands: Understanding Self-Organised Ecogeomorphic Systems, which is the outcome of an ESF-funded Exploratory Workshop – “Self-organized ecogeomorphic systems: confronting models with data for land degradation in drylands” – which was held in Potsdam, Germany, 7–10 June 2010.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, 14469, Potsdam, Germany

    Florian Jeltsch

  2. Institute of Hazards, Risk and Resilience, Department of Geography, Durham University, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

    Laura Turnbull

  3. Dipartimento di Idraulica, Trasporti ed Infrastrutture Civili, University of Turin, 10129, Torino, Italy

    Stefania Scarsoglio

  4. Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, 50080, Zaragoza, Spain

    Concepcion L. Alados

  5. Institute of Earth Sciences, Jaume Almera (CSIC), 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Francesc Gallart

  6. Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, 14476, Potsdam, Germany

    Eva Nora Mueller

  7. IRD/UMR AMAP, Botany and Computational Plant Architecture, 34398, Montpellier, France

    Nicolas Barbier

  8. Department of Geography, King’s College London, Strand, WC2R 2LS, London, UK

    James D. A. Millington

  9. Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

    John Wainwright

  10. Department of Geosciences, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Mareike Wieczorek

  11. Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research UFZ, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Volker Grimm

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  1. Florian Jeltsch
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Correspondence to Eva Nora Mueller .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Eva Nora Mueller

  2. Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom

    John Wainwright

  3. Sheffield Centre for International Drylands Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Anthony J. Parsons

  4. Department of Geography Science Laboratories, Durham University Inst. of Hazards, Risk and Resilienc, Durham, United Kingdom

    Laura Turnbull

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Jeltsch, F. et al. (2014). Resilience, Self-Organization, Complexity and Pattern Formation. In: Mueller, E., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A., Turnbull, L. (eds) Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5727-1_3

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