RESILIENCE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 57

Pulse and reserve systems are not so much about the rain or boom conditions,
but rather about the spaces between booms. Waiting out these resource-poor times
between rains defines and limits desert life. Plants reserve their future in seeds.
Animals like birds and kangaroos often move away in dry times - a nomadic
strategy to avoid times of low resources. Other animals lie in wait: fish and frogs
bury themselves and are awoken by the falling rain, when it finally comes. All have
to be able to snap into active mode very quickly whenever the season arrives - not
annually, but whenever . The best opportunists are those that jump quickest to the
desert pulse. The capacity to switch between reserve mode and pulse mode is a
survival advantage in deserts.
In 1973, Noy-Meir and Holling were both working as mathematical biologists.
Both argued for a broader, rather than an increasingly specialised approach to their
subjects. An interest in variability demanded looking for different drivers, modelling
different questions. Holling had noted in his work on predation patterns that they
fluctuated, but did not move in a particular direction, nor did they settle at a balance
point. There was no equilibrium or climax in his data. So he turned his theoretical
attention to 'the amplitude and frequency of oscillations'. His biologist's eye recog-
nised that:
An equilibrium centred view is essentially static and provides little insight into
the transient behaviour of systems that are not near the equilibrium. Natural,
undisturbed systems are likely to be continually in a transient state; they will
be equally so under the influence of man.
(Holling, 1973: 2)
Holling focused on changes external to the system, the surprises, and sought to map
out the persistence of the relationships between elements of the ecosystems. By taking
the ecosystem as a whole, his questions turned to its sustainability or, in some cases,
total collapse. What Holling sought was mathematical precision, but with real-
world ecological assumptions, to drive new models for ecologically complex
situations.
A model based on the mathematics of standard physics 'generates neutral
stability', he noted, 'but the [biological] assumptions are very unrealistic since very
few components are included, there are no explicit lags or spatial elements, and
thresholds, limits, and nonlinearities are missing' (ibid.: 5).
Rangeland management science: 1969-1989
There was a close relationship between the arid zone ecology of the 1950s in
Australia and the professional rangeland management science that strengthened in
the 1970s. Although the Australian desert or arid country was the geographical
terrain of much of this new science, its intellectual forces were international. In
1973 and 1974, a United States/Australia Rangeland Panel held joint meetings in
Tucson, Arizona, in 1973 and Alice Springs in 1974, under the auspices of the