What do disturbances do to ecosystems, and what does ecological resilience mean in this context?

• A. Disturbances disrupt structure and processes; resilience is the system's ability to recover and return to a prior state or adapt to a new stable state.
• B. Resilience is the ability to prevent any disturbance from affecting the ecosystem.
• C. Resilience means the ecosystem becomes permanently altered after disturbance.
• D. Resilience refers to how quickly a population grows after disturbance.

Answer: (A)

Disturbances shake ecosystems by altering who is present, how they are arranged, and how nutrients and energy move through the system. Ecological resilience is the system’s capacity to absorb that shake and keep functioning, either by bouncing back to how it was before or by reorganizing into a new, stable state that still supports the essential ecological roles and services. This captures both recovery and the potential for adaptation to change, rather than implying disturbances can be prevented or that the ecosystem must stay permanently altered. It also goes beyond just how fast a population grows after a disturbance, encompassing the overall maintenance of structure and processes that keep the ecosystem resilient.