What reduces resilience?
- Repeated or intense disturbances
- Loss of biodiversity
- Removal of key storages
- Human pressures (deforestation, pollution, overfishing)
Low resilience increases the risk of tipping points.
Factors that increase resilience
1. Diversity
Diversity makes systems more resilient.
- More species = more interactions
- If one species fails, another can replace its role (redundancy)
- Genetic diversity increases survival after disturbance
Example: If one prey species declines, predators may switch to another.
2. Size and number of storages
Large and multiple storages increase resilience.
- Water stored in lakes and reservoirs
- Biomass stored in forests
- Nutrients stored in soil
Large storages act as buffers — they slow down change.
Example: A lake dries out more slowly than a puddle because it has a larger storage.
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IB-style question — what makes a system resilient
“Explain how greater diversity and larger storages make an ecosystem more resilient.” [3–4]
How to answer it, step by step
- Diversity
• more species = if one is lost, others fill its role
• system keeps functioning → resists hitting a tipping point - Larger storages
• bigger buffer = any loss is a smaller percentage
• less likely to pass the tipping point; recovers faster
Final answer
Every point must link the feature (diversity/size) to resilience — naming it without explaining the link loses marks.