Resilience and stability are distinct ecological concepts describing different recovery properties

Evidence

Resilience is the degree to which an ecosystem’s long-standing composition and structure can be disturbed and yet return to that domain in which those processes and interactions function as before (Holling, 1973). A system disturbed beyond its limits of resilience will return to a new domain in the vicinity of a different structure characterized by altered composition and interactions of species and (perhaps) by a different disturbance pattern. In contrast, “stability” describes the frequency with which a system’s long-standing composition is disturbed and its propensity to return if displaced within a domain of attraction (Holling, 1973). The critical consideration here is the change in community structure and species interactions due to some disturbance and whether or not those interactions resume on the removal of the disturbance. For our purposes, it is not necessary that an equilibrium be attained or that we define such an equilibrium. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1907

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the resilience vs stability distinction (Holling) essential to reading any ‘does this regenerate?’ landscape question.
• XREF: Terminology to carry alongside Soundscape’s breakpoint/resilience framing; also pair with earlier claim ‘Equilibrium succession models give way to a kinetic view accepting site instability’ (ch9). — connects to: Settler violence and dispossession are ecological harms when measured by relational resilience — Kyle Whyte, Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and…, 97; Ecology abandoned stability theories for models of complex change. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 986; Ecosystem resilience increases with species diversity against species loss — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 314 (+3 more)
• QUESTION: The reader’s own first-chapter claim distinguished endogenous autogenesis from exogenous allogenesis — is the resilience/stability pair homologous to that split?

Broader Connections

• Resilience means regaining stability after disaster, not mere robustness #corroborates (0.92) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 4592
• Resilience marks irreversible psychic change, not a return to prior equilibrium #complicates (0.78) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 3800
• Resilience means forming oneself out of the annihilation of form #qualifies (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 251