time without any external influences . Low resilience systems are more susceptible to reaching thresholds where there is a transition to an alternative system state . This means they are less likely to return to their original state and more likely to transition to a state with decreased functioning and provision of services .
Resilience theory emphasizes the need to understand and manage change , both in terms of withstanding shocks and disturbances through persistence and adaptation . Using these system interactions as an opportunity to study state variables and observe natural recovery will help communities make better decisions in the face of uncertainty and develop solutions with co-benefits to both natural and built environments .
SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE
The sequence of events following a disturbance to coastal wetlands is characterized by a change in ecosystem structure , then a change in function , which causes a variation in ecosystem services that alter their value to a community ( Bernhardt and Leslie , 2013 ). The concept of social-ecological resilience can help to explain these feedbacks . Social-ecological resilience is defined as the circumstances at which individuals and social groups adapt to social , political , and environmental change ( Adger , 2000 ). The social and ecological systems of Kiawah Island are linked through social dependence on ecosystem services and how these social systems , in turn , influence the health of the ecological system .
“ In a resilient social – ecological system , disturbance has the potential to create opportunities for doing new things , for innovation and for development , while in vulnerable systems , even small disturbances may cause dramatic social consequences ( Folke , 2006 ).”
In order to bolster resilience on Kiawah Island , it is encouraged to adopt a perspective that shifts management from seeking to control change to that of managing our natural and built systems to cope with , adapt to , and shape future change . The resiliency of a dynamic system is not reduced to that of its individual components , but rather the holistic interactions between all of the components within a system . An overarching goal is to understand the links between elements of our natural systems and determine what shocks and stressors our system would likely not recover from .
Threats to Social-Ecological Resilience
Impacts to the resilience of natural systems will generally affect both human and wildlife communities by reducing the provision of suitable habitat and ecosystem services within a social-ecological system . While there are a variety of uncertainties regarding the current and potential threats to this system , several known threats are of significant concern . Chief of these concerns is the reduction in biodiversity and the effects of climate change .
Biodiversity , the variety of life and habitats that exists within an ecosystem , is credited as the main ecosystem service producing positive impacts on humanity ( Haines-Young and Potschin , 2010 ). Biodiversity provides a range of benefits , including reduction of potential health risks in humans , protection from natural hazards , and increased ability of human and wildlife communities to recover from environmental stressors ( Sandifer and Sutton-Grier , 2014 ). In some cases , stressors on an ecosystem facilitate the loss of biodiversity to an extent where there is an irreparable loss of ecosystem services ( Chapin III et al ., 2000 ) which inhibits the ability for the system to recover ( Hooper et al , 2005 ; Oliver et al ., 2015 ; Sandifer et al ., 2017 ). Generally , land areas with biodiverse plant and wildlife communities are the most resilient in the presence of changes and provide the widest range of services to the social-ecological system .
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