Resilence

Thanks to Josh for this one.

"When prairies burn, they don’t die. The destruction jump-starts an elegant system of rebirth. Species of plants, insects, and bacteria that lay dormant in the soil are brought to life, energized and fertilized by the super-heat of the fire, the super-charcoalization of the burned grasses, and the sun’s ability to penetrate the ground, after the 20-foot-tall (6.1 m) vegetation is gone. Natural selection kept those survivor species viable in the soil as a plan for the future. Life begins again, quickly.

I am an architect, not a scientist or an expert in biodiversity. But I derive great inspiration from the "prairie rules" of survival, particularly when advising clients on how to design their real estate portfolios with an eye toward engineered resilience. That is a request my colleagues throughout the profession and I are getting with increased frequency."...

http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2012/June/ul/TaylorLandWrites

Reminder: The Stockholm Resilence Center"Stockholm Resilience Centre advances research on the governance of social-ecological systems with a special emphasis on resilience - the ability to deal with change and continue to develop."
http://www.stockholmresilience.org/

Short takes from their site:
Welcome to Anthroprocene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvgG-pxlobk
What is Resilience?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aSil22JYraI
Another take on defining it: http://vimeo.com/17753942
Nine Boundaries: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/945 
and http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/researchnews/tippingtowardstheunknown.5.7cf9c5aa121e17bab42800021543.html