Things fall apart: why do the ecosystems we depend on collapse?

Everything collapses, eventually.

People collapse, buildings collapse, economies collapse and even entire human civilizations collapse. Collapse is also common in the natural world – animal populations and ecosystems collapse. These collapses have the greatest impact on us when they affect resources our industries depend on, leaving ecosystems in tatters and sometimes ruining local economies.

In a new paper, I look at two natural resource industries – fisheries and forestry – that are highly susceptible to collapse.

From the infamous 1980s collapse of the Canadian cod industry to the apparent imminent collapse of the Heyfield sawmill in southern Victoria, we can see a recurring pattern. And by getting better at predicting this pattern, we might be able to avoid collapse in the future.

Read the thoughts of a professor from the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University, David Lindenmayer, on The Conversation -  “Things fall apart: why do the ecosystems we depend on collapse?”