BIODIVERSITY, RESILIENCE AND THE CONTROL OF ECOLOGICAL-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS - THE CASE OF FIRE-DRIVEN RANGELANDS

The loss of resilience in systems characterised by multiple equilibria is indicated by a discontinuous change in the state of the system, or the transition from one locally stable state corresponding to a parti cular mix of species to another state corresponding to a different mix of species. The resilience of the system (the state of the range in t his example) may be influenced by the management regime through its im pact on the response to disturbances. The paper shows that optimal man agement of an event-driven system should be sensitive to the opportuni ties created by such events. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.