TY  - JOUR
A1  - Weisshuhn, Peter
A1  - Mueller, Felix
A1  - Wiggering, Hubert
T1  - Ecosystem Vulnerability Review
BT  - proposal of an interdisciplinary ecosystem assessment approach
JF  - Environmental Management
N2  - To safeguard the sustainable use of ecosystems and their services, early detection of potentially damaging changes in functional capabilities is needed. To support a proper ecosystem management, the analysis of an ecosystem’s vulnerability provide information on its weaknesses as well as on its capacity to recover after suffering an impact. However, the application of the vulnerability concept to ecosystems is still an emerging topic. After providing background on the vulnerability concept, we summarize existing ecosystem vulnerability research on the basis of a systematic literature review with a special focus on ecosystem type, disciplinary background, and more detailed definition of the ecosystem vulnerability components. Using the Web of ScienceTM Core Collection, we overviewed the literature from 1991 onwards but used the 5 years from 2011 to 2015 for an in-depth analysis, including 129 articles. We found that ecosystem vulnerability analysis has been applied most notably in conservation biology, climate change research, and ecological risk assessments, pinpointing a limited spreading across the environmental sciences. It occurred primarily within marine and freshwater ecosystems. To avoid confusion, we recommend using the unambiguous term ecosystem vulnerability rather than ecological, environmental, population, or community vulnerability. Further, common ground has been identified, on which to define the ecosystem vulnerability components exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. We propose a framework for ecosystem assessments that coherently connects the concepts of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptability as different ecosystem responses. A short outlook on the possible operationalization of the concept by ecosystem vulnerabilty indices, and a conclusion section complete the review.
KW  - Environmental vulnerability
KW  - Ecological vulnerability
KW  - Ecosystem response
KW  - Interdisciplinarity
KW  - Resilience
KW  - Adaptability
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-018-1023-8
SN  - 0364-152X
SN  - 1432-1009
VL  - 61
IS  - 6
SP  - 904
EP  - 915
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -