1.2.17—Factors affecting resilience

Syllabus
First assessment 2026
Objective
1.2.17
Level
SL

Diversity and Storage Buy Recovery Time

Diversity supplies alternative pathways, while larger storages buffer a disturbance; both can slow change and support resilience.

Compare the disturbance with storage size and available alternatives. A larger store reduces the proportional effect and often lengthens response time, but it does not prevent all change.

A diverse prairie with seed reserves can recover after drought better than a monoculture; a lake changes more slowly than a puddle after the same water loss.

The puddle; the loss is a larger fraction of its storage.

A larger storage buffers change; it does not make a system invulnerable.