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Cited by 18,995Ecosystem dynamics and resilienceEcology and Vegetation Dynamics StudiesMathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models

Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems

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Holling, C S·1973·Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics
DOI 10.1146/annurev.es.04.110173.000245
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Abstract

Individuals die, populations disappear, and species become extinct. That is one view of the world. But another view of the world concentrates not so much on presence or absence as upon the numbers of organisms and the degree of constancy of their numbers. These are two very different ways of viewing the behavior of systems and the usefulness of the view depends very much on the properties of the system concerned. If we are examining a particular device designed by the engineer to perform specific tasks under a rather narrow range of predictable external conditions, we are likely to be more concerned with consistent nonvariable performance in which slight departures from the performance goal are immediately counteracted. A quantitative view of the behavior of the system is, therefore, essential. With attention focused upon achieving constancy, the critical events seem to be the amplitude and frequency of oscillations. But if we are dealing with a system profoundly affected by changes external to it, and continually confronted by the unexpected, the constancy of its behavior becomes less important than the persistence of the relationships. Attention shifts, therefore, to the qualitative and to questions of existence or not. Our traditions of analysis in theoretical and empirical ecology have been largely inherited from developments in classical physics and its applied variants. Inevitably, there has been a tendency to emphasize the quantitative rather than the qualitative, for it is important in this tradition to know not just that a quantity is larger than another quantity, but precisely how much larger. It is similarly important, if a quantity fluctuates, to know its amplitude and period of fluctuation. But this orientation may simply reflect an analytic approach developed in one area because it was useful and then transferred to another where it may not be. Our traditional view of natural systems, therefore, might well be less a meaningful reality than a perceptual convenience. There can in some years be more owls and fewer mice and in others, the reverse. Fish populations wax and wane as a natural condition, and insect populations can range over extremes that only logarithmic

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  • The term 'resilience' was developed in the physical sciences to describe the qualities and capacities that enable a community to recover from a catastrophic event.

    “The term ' resilience ' was developed in the physical sciences to describe the qualities and capacities that enable a community to recover from a catastrophic event (Barrios 2016), focusing on the mechanisms that enable a system to return to equilibrium after a stress or the ability to absorb change (Gordon 1978; Holling 1973: 14).”

    From Mindfulness and Resilience in Britain: A Genealogy of the “Present Moment” (2021) · cites this paper as Holling 1973: 14

    The Synthesis section defines resilience as a system’s ability to absorb change and persist, supporting that part of the clause cited to Holling. It separately defines returning to equilibrium after a disturbance as stability, not resilience. The preceding claim about the term’s origins is cited to Barrios, not Holling. (LLM, conf=0.90)

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  • Feedback loops can lead not only to financial crashes but to military conflicts and ecological disasters.

    “Feedback loops can lead not only to financial crashes but to military conflicts (Richardson, 1960, see also ?? ) and ecological disasters (Holling, 1973).”

    From Multi-Agent Risks from Advanced AI (2025) · cites this paper as Holling, 1973

  • Stability is the ability of a system to return to an equilibrium state after a temporary disturbance; resilience is a measure of the persistence of systems and their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same relationships.

    “One can be termed stability, which represents the ability of a system to return to an equilibrium state after a temporary disturbance; the more rapidly it returns and the less it fluctuates, the more stable it would be. But there is another property, termed resilience, that is a measure of the persistence of systems and of their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same”

    From No Virtue Like Resilience: Machiavelli’s Realistic Justification of Democracy (2024) · cites this paper as Holling, 1973: 14

  • Ecology identified resilience as a feature of complex environmental systems whose high fluctuations allow them to adapt to perturbing variables.

    “The most interesting conceptual refinement of the notion of resilience occurred within ecology, where it was identified as a feature of those complex environmental systems whose high fluctuations allow them to adapt to perturbing variables (Holling, 1973).”

    From No Virtue Like Resilience: Machiavelli’s Realistic Justification of Democracy (2024) · cites this paper as Holling, 1973

  • In the analysis of ecological systems, survival is directly linked to resilience in an evolutionary sense.

    “In sum, in the analysis of ecological systems, survival is directly linked to resilience in an evolutionary sense, which perfectly aligns with Machiavelli's intuition:”

    From No Virtue Like Resilience: Machiavelli’s Realistic Justification of Democracy (2024) · cites this paper as Holling, 1973: 19

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Authors
Holling, C. S.
Corresponding author
Holling, C S
Venue
Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Published
1973-11
Volume
4
Issue
1
Pages
1-23
ISSN
0066-4162 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1146/annurev.es.04.110173.000245
OpenAlex
W2011303397
Cited by
18,995
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1686 · 2025: 1550 · 2024: 1489 · 2023: 1328 · 2022: 1322 · 2021: 1298 · 2020: 1155 · 2019: 1158 · 2018: 1035 · 2017: 853 · 2016: 773 · 2015: 732 · 2014: 647 · 2013: 559 · 2012: 483
FWCI
61.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics (publishedVersion)
  • Princeton University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
  • IIASA PURE (International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models
Keywords
ecosystem resilience, ecosystem stability, population fluctuations, oscillations, population persistence, population dynamics, quantitative ecology

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