History
About 71% of planet Earth is covered in water. Of that water, over 95% of it is in the oceans. That makes ocean conservation and the health of the world’s oceans awfully important. The world’s approach to ocean conservation is a patchwork plan. It includes managed fisheries, protected areas, ocean sanctuaries, and regulations regarding trawling, drilling, and development. One fascinating, potentially game-changing area of ocean conservation is resilience science, which studies how ecosystems respond to or resist disturbances. Scientists in this field recognize that it’s not enough to focus on a particular species or a certain threat. Instead, they try to understand how an entire ecosystem works, how diversity strengthens that ecosystem, and how the ecosystem responds to threats and changes. Different species respond to the same threats in vastly different ways, so these scientists hope to learn more about what makes certain members of ecosystems more resilient, recognizing that change is inevitable.