PS 22-48
Social-ecological connectivity and system resilience on the landscape – The Rogue River Basin, Oregon, USA
Understanding ecological and social patterns is critical to maintaining ecosystem functioning in many landscapes. In the western United States ecosystem management at the landscape scale requires planning across multiple land ownership types – public, private, industrial and tribal. Since humans continue to shape ecological patterns and processes on the land, it is critical to understand human disturbances and the changing social-ecological framework if we wish to develop adaptive management strategies that are resilient or adaptive to change. We examined the hypothesis that more connected social-ecological systems lead to greater social resilience and ecological resilience in response to change. To evaluate connectivity within the system, measures of social connectivity were analyzed using a combination of network mapping and interviews, and measures of ecological connectivity were analyzed using available data for the Rogue River Basin in Southern Oregon, USA for the past 20 years. We further developed measures of resilience and conducted an institutional analysis to characterize the resilience of the social-ecological landscape.
Results/Conclusions
Social connectivity within sub-basins differs significantly throughout the Rogue River Basin. Ecological connectivity and resilience within sub-basins also differs significantly through the Rogue River Basin. The degree to which connectivity is related to social-ecological system resilience appears to be related to past and present management activities and ownership types. Our findings suggest that consideration of combined social and ecological measures of connectivity are important for predicting the resilience of the social-ecological system. Site history and social context must be considered when setting goals for adaptive ecosystem management.