Ecological resilience, robustness and vulnerability: how do these concepts benefit ecosystem management?

- Ecosystem resilience, vulnerability and robustness are available frameworks for ecosystem management.
- We provide explicit guidance on how to quantify them and when each is most appropriate.
- Ecological resilience is useful if there is risk of ecosystems failing to exhibit recovery.
- Vulnerability is good for identifying attributes that confer sensitivity and capacity to adapt from a disturbance.
- Robustness is appropriate when aiming to maintain a specific level of ecosystem state, function or service value within a limited range.