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Resilience and Adaptation in Social-Ecological Systems

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Evolutionary Ethnobiology

Abstract

Social-ecological systems are open and dynamic systems. A major challenge in ethnobiological research involves understanding how social-ecological systems maintain their functions and processes upon facing disturbances over time. In this chapter, we present the concepts of resilience and adaptation, aiming to provide a scenario for ethnobiological studies that seek to investigate how social-ecological systems respond to disturbances. Moreover, we provide some examples of ethnobiological studies that sought to understand the resilience of social-ecological systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We use the concept of environment, as understood in physics, representing all that is beyond the limits of a system and, thus, is not part of it. If the system studied is a person, then the family and social context be considered the environment. If the system is a plant fragment, all factors external to the fragment, including the people living around the fragment and that depend on it for their subsistence, are considered the environment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by funding from the Pernambuco State Foundation for Science and Technology (FACEPE—APQ—1264-2.05/10) and the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq—Proc. 471989/2012-6).

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Correspondence to Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior .

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Júnior, W.S.F. et al. (2015). Resilience and Adaptation in Social-Ecological Systems. In: Albuquerque, U., De Medeiros, P., Casas, A. (eds) Evolutionary Ethnobiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19917-7_8

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