General description
This course aims at the provision of the scientific knowledge to make use of the concept of ecosystem resilience that generate a basis for resisting natural and human-induced changes to ensure the sustainability of ecosystems that generate natural resources that people use for their lives and improve their well-being. The course addresses topics related to the importance of biodiversity, the resilience and stability of ecosystems and genetic resilience, and their impact on ecosystems resilience, with a particular focus on food-producing ecosystems, given their importance in food security policies.
The course contains four chapters:
1- Biodiversity and resilience: This chapter reviews the evidence on the transformation of land and aquatic ecosystems in relation to resilience of complex adaptive natural ecosystems, and the functional roles of biodiversity in this context. It is also focusing on the evidence of human intervention through its activities in the process of transitions that lead to the decline of diversity and species and the elimination of food chains in full, or removing whole trophic levels
2- Resilience and stability of natural ecosystems: Description of the relationship between the resilience and stability of ecosystems and its relationship to natural resource management methods. Introducing the concept of stability of ecosystems which are derived from the fact that ecosystems are the products of processes that operate at a variety of scales, describe the relationship between processes and levels and the impact of changes occurring at any of the other levels and vice versa.
3- Genetic resilience and stability of natural ecosystems: Introducing the concept that genetic diversity, and biodiversity in general which can be eroded in many ways but one of the single most cited threats to global biodiversity is habitat degradation and fragmentation. Describing the genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation which leads to loss of genetic diversity and random genetic drift in small population and restricted gene flow and subsequent inbreeding
4- Resilience of food production ecosystems: Introducing the concept of interlinkages between sustainability of food production systems and resilience of natural ecosystems as soils, water and genetic ecosystems.
Elaboration on management of the resilience of ecosystems to anticipate changes and shape it in a way to conserve human well-being.