Living System Ability: Defining Resilience

The question asks to identify the term for a living system's capacity to recover from a severe disturbance, particularly through secondary succession.

Understanding Key Ecological Terms

• Resilience: This term specifically refers to the ability of an ecosystem or living system to absorb disturbances and reorganize while undergoing change so as to essentially retain the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks. It emphasizes the capacity to bounce back after a disturbance. Secondary succession is a prime example of resilience in action, where an ecosystem recovers over time.
• Resistance: This is the ability of an ecosystem to remain unchanged when subjected to a disturbance. It's about preventing change, not recovering from it.
• Rehabilitation: This often involves human intervention to improve the condition of a degraded ecosystem, but it doesn't solely capture the natural recovery process.
• Restoration: This is the active process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. While related, resilience is the inherent ability, whereas restoration is the action taken.

Identifying the Correct Term

Based on the definitions, the ability of a living system to be restored through secondary succession after a severe disturbance is precisely what Resilience describes. The system undergoes a disturbance but has the inherent capacity to recover and re-establish its structure and function.