Ecological Resilience Theory : Application and Testing in Seagrass Ecosystems

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Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Connolly, Rod
Other Supervisors
Pitt, Kylie
Year published
2014
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In response to growing global impact on ecosystems, we design programs for conservation and restoration to maintain and enhance biodiversity, productivity and ecosystem resilience. To ensure the
greatest return for these programs, there is an implicit requirement for identifying and understanding the complex non-linear relationships that can exist between impact gradients, ecosystem structure and the
processes that mediate the two. Ecological resilience theory has developed as one of the fundamental explanations of this complexity. The application of ecological resilience theory in a local management context, however, is ...
View more >In response to growing global impact on ecosystems, we design programs for conservation and restoration to maintain and enhance biodiversity, productivity and ecosystem resilience. To ensure the greatest return for these programs, there is an implicit requirement for identifying and understanding the complex non-linear relationships that can exist between impact gradients, ecosystem structure and the processes that mediate the two. Ecological resilience theory has developed as one of the fundamental explanations of this complexity. The application of ecological resilience theory in a local management context, however, is often hampered by a disparity between the theory and what is practical to test empirically. This thesis used seagrass ecosystems in Moreton Bay, Queensland as a model system for the development and testing of a practical framework to examine the potential for incorporating measures of feedback loops into the empirical assessment of resilience. I focussed on the behaviour of feedback processes in relation to changing levels of impact with a view to developing a generic, testable hypothesis that could be used to assess ecological resilience more broadly. A Bayesian network was used to synthesis the known relationships between impact and seagrass response to identify three key feedback processes that stabilise seagrass ecosystems in Moreton Bay......
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View more >In response to growing global impact on ecosystems, we design programs for conservation and restoration to maintain and enhance biodiversity, productivity and ecosystem resilience. To ensure the greatest return for these programs, there is an implicit requirement for identifying and understanding the complex non-linear relationships that can exist between impact gradients, ecosystem structure and the processes that mediate the two. Ecological resilience theory has developed as one of the fundamental explanations of this complexity. The application of ecological resilience theory in a local management context, however, is often hampered by a disparity between the theory and what is practical to test empirically. This thesis used seagrass ecosystems in Moreton Bay, Queensland as a model system for the development and testing of a practical framework to examine the potential for incorporating measures of feedback loops into the empirical assessment of resilience. I focussed on the behaviour of feedback processes in relation to changing levels of impact with a view to developing a generic, testable hypothesis that could be used to assess ecological resilience more broadly. A Bayesian network was used to synthesis the known relationships between impact and seagrass response to identify three key feedback processes that stabilise seagrass ecosystems in Moreton Bay......
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Thesis Type
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Degree Program
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School
Griffith School of Environment
Copyright Statement
The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
Item Access Status
Public
Subject
Resilience theory
Seagrass ecosystems