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Measuring resilience is essential to understand it

Nature Sustainability volume 2, pages 895–897 (2019)Cite this article

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The terms sustainability, resilience and others group under the heading of ‘stability’. Their ubiquity speaks to a vital need to characterize changes in complex social and environmental systems. In a bewildering array of terms, practical measurements are essential to permit comparisons and so untangle underlying relationships.

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Fig. 1: Changes in an index of the harvest of wintering woodcocks and the US stock index.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Stuart L. Pimm

  2. School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Ian Donohue

  3. Theoretical and Experimental Ecological Station, CNRS, UPS, Moulis, France

    José M. Montoya & Michel Loreau

Authors
  1. Stuart L. Pimm
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  2. Ian Donohue
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  3. José M. Montoya
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  4. Michel Loreau
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Correspondence to Stuart L. Pimm.

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Pimm, S.L., Donohue, I., Montoya, J.M. et al. Measuring resilience is essential to understand it. Nat Sustain 2, 895–897 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0399-7

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