Pou 1: Titirangi

The health of our plant-based productive ecosystems emerges from interactions among plant communities, microbes in and on plants, external stressors, and the broader landscape context at a variety of spatial scales.

Knowing what defines the health of a productive ecosystem is crucial to understanding how to protect them; how to undermine the persistence of undesirable components such as pests, weeds and diseases; and how to monitor whether sustainable ecosystem productivity is improving.

In essence, a healthy ecosystem is one that is relatively resistant to change and can also reassemble/reorganise following disruption – meaning it is also resilient to change.