Achievement

The cross-scale resilience model proposes that ecological resilience is generated in part from the distribution of functions within and across scales in a system. We applied the cross-scale resilience model to a grassland ecosystem by measuring three metrics of ecological function in avian species. We assessed how the loss of endangered species would affect cross-scale resilience, and whether more function was retained than expected after the loss of currently declining species. We found that an intact ecosystem can sustain large species losses without affecting the distribution of functions within and across scales, though resilience is reduced. We propose that the mechanisms responsible for shaping discontinuous body mass distributions and the non-random distribution of functions also shapes species losses such that extinctions are non-random with respect to the retention and distribution of functions, and that the distribution of function within and across scales is conserved.