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Flip to reveal answersDefine resilience in ESS.
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All 30 Flashcards — Resilience
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Question
Define resilience in ESS.
Answer
Resilience is a system’s ability to absorb disturbance and keep functioning (or recover) without collapsing.
💡 Hint
Absorb + recover.
Question
List one factor that reduces resilience.
Answer
Loss of biodiversity, repeated disturbances, removal of storages, or strong human pressures (pollution/deforestation).
💡 Hint
Any one factor.
Question
Which type of feedback usually supports resilience?
Answer
Strong negative feedback loops usually support resilience because they counteract change.
💡 Hint
Negative feedback stabilises.
Question
How can deforestation reduce resilience?
Answer
It reduces biodiversity and biomass storage, weakening buffers and increasing tipping point risk.
💡 Hint
Less diversity + less storage.
Question
What human inputs often trigger lake eutrophication?
Answer
Excess nitrates and phosphates from agriculture runoff or sewage discharge.
💡 Hint
N + P nutrients.
Question
Resilience: one-sentence definition?
Answer
Ability to recover from disturbance and keep functioning over time.
💡 Hint
Recover + persist.
Question
What is an algal bloom?
Answer
Rapid growth of algae due to high nutrient levels, often turning water green and reducing light.
💡 Hint
Nutrients → algae.
Question
What increases resilience most reliably?
Answer
High biodiversity and large/multiple storages (buffers).
💡 Hint
Diversity + storage.
Question
What is a disturbance?
Answer
A sudden event that disrupts a system (e.g., fire, flood, disease, pollution).
💡 Hint
Shock event.
Question
How can positive feedback affect resilience?
Answer
Strong positive feedback amplifies change and can reduce resilience by pushing systems toward tipping points.
💡 Hint
Amplifies change.
Question
How can monoculture farming affect resilience?
Answer
It reduces biodiversity and functional redundancy, making ecosystems less able to recover from disturbance.
💡 Hint
Low diversity.
Question
How does biodiversity increase resilience?
Answer
More species/roles create redundancy; if one fails, others can replace its function.
💡 Hint
Redundancy.
Question
Give one action that increases ecosystem resilience.
Answer
Protect habitats, restore mixed native species, improve soil management, or restore wetlands.
💡 Hint
Increase diversity + storages.
Question
Why do fish often die during eutrophication?
Answer
Decomposition of dead algae/plants uses dissolved oxygen, causing hypoxia and fish kills.
💡 Hint
Decomp uses O2.
Question
Why are resilient systems described as dynamic?
Answer
They can change in the short term after disturbance but remain stable in the long term.
💡 Hint
Short-term change is normal.
Question
Give one example of a tipping point shift.
Answer
Clear lake + nutrient input → algal bloom → murky, low-oxygen lake state.
💡 Hint
Lake example.
Question
How do large storages increase resilience?
Answer
Large/multiple storages buffer change and slow system response, reducing collapse risk.
💡 Hint
Storage = buffer.
Question
What reduces resilience most reliably?
Answer
Loss of diversity, shrinking storages, and strong human pressures (pollution/deforestation/overuse).
💡 Hint
Less diversity + less storage.
Question
Why can ecosystem damage be “delayed or hidden”?
Answer
Feedback delays mean impacts appear later, so humans may respond only when collapse is near.
💡 Hint
Delays.
Question
Give one example of a storage that supports resilience.
Answer
Soil nutrients, forest biomass, water in lakes/reservoirs, or carbon in vegetation.
💡 Hint
Name a storage.
Question
What happens after a tipping point is crossed?
Answer
The system settles into a new equilibrium, often difficult to reverse.
💡 Hint
New equilibrium.
Question
Low resilience increases what risk?
Answer
Crossing tipping points and shifting to a new equilibrium.
💡 Hint
Tipping points.
Question
Why can eutrophication be hard to reverse?
Answer
Nutrients stored in sediments can keep feeding algal growth even after inputs are reduced.
💡 Hint
Sediment nutrient store.
Question
Give one example of a resilient ecosystem.
Answer
A diverse forest that can regrow after fire and continue functioning.
💡 Hint
Diversity helps.
Question
Is eutrophication often a reinforcing loop? Explain briefly.
Answer
Yes: more nutrients → more algae → more death/decomposition → conditions that can release/retain nutrients, driving more algae.
💡 Hint
Reinforcing loop.
Question
How can management increase resilience?
Answer
Reduce pressures, protect diversity, and strengthen storages/buffers to support stabilising feedback.
💡 Hint
Reduce pressure + build buffers.
Question
Why does low resilience increase tipping point risk?
Answer
With weaker buffers and fewer stabilising processes, disturbances push the system past thresholds more easily.
💡 Hint
Weak buffers.
Question
Best exam line linking people to resilience?
Answer
Human actions can raise or lower resilience by changing biodiversity and storages, affecting tipping point risk.
💡 Hint
Mention biodiversity + storages.
Question
What is the simplest rule for resilience actions?
Answer
Actions that increase diversity and storages usually increase resilience.
💡 Hint
Diversity + storage.
Question
What happens when resilience is low?
Answer
The system is more likely to cross a tipping point and shift to a new equilibrium.
💡 Hint
Low resilience → tipping points.
Read the notes
Full study notes for Resilience
Topic 1.3 hub
Equilibrium, stability and resilience
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