Ecosystem Memory: Defining a Concept for Sustainable Forest Management

Abstract

Changing disturbance regimes and uncertain recovery trajectories under global change have created a need for conceptual models to guide forest management within a sustainability framework. This conceptual article develops on operational framework for ecosystem memory in forest ecosystems. Conventional views of resilience may foster the misleading assumption that ecosystem development follows a fixed trajectory within the boundaries of the natural range of variation. However, climate change may transform resilience mechanisms, causing forest ecosystems to shift beyond their historical range of variation. Under such conditions, the concept of ecosystem memory offers a framework for analyzing and quantifying temporal system properties. The constraints inherited through memory patterns are themselves likely to be modified under changing environmental conditions. A valid interpretation of ecosystem memory requires a clear ontological understanding of memory components as material entities organized under temporal and spatial constraints. The human memory metaphor is an appealing entry point for understanding ecosystem memory but risks erroneously attributing semantic encoding and representational processes to ecological systems, where no such mechanisms exist. Based on a narrative synthesis of 39 publications, supplemented by an updated Web of Science search that identified 396 records, we develop an operational ecosystem-memory framework that distinguishes persistent ecological legacies from functionally active memory by linking ecological imprints, ecosystem engrams, and measurable ecosystem responses. The framework provides a basis for identifying and monitoring measurable legacy variables, including deadwood, retained trees, regeneration, soil properties, and refugial structures, in post-disturbance forest management.