Managing ecosystems under climate change using nature's hidden design

Study argues that ecological diversity functions like a financial portfolio, increasing resilience in the face of uncertainty

Centre for Ecosystem Management

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Productivity over time, where diversity across species, habitats, and ecological functions results in a stabilizing "portfolio effect" that promotes resilience.

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Credit: Centre for Ecosystem Management

As climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, and overexploitation continue to reshape ecosystems worldwide, a central challenge for scientists and natural resource managers is understanding what makes ecosystems resilient—and how that resilience can be protected. A new synthesis paper recently published in Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment examines the ecological structures and processes that help ecosystems withstand these disturbances while continuing to provide the benefits that people and wildlife depend on.

Variation drives stability

Drawing on examples from across the Great Lakes Basin, researchers at the Centre for Ecosystem Management (CEM)—together with scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Cornell University, Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources—highlight the importance of what ecologists call "portfolio effects": the stabilizing influence that arises when ecosystems contain a diversity of species, habitats, and ecological interactions operating across multiple levels of ecological organization. These portfolio effects arise because ecosystems contain natural variation at multiple nested scales, from habitats and populations to species and entire energy pathways. Much like a diversified financial portfolio reduces risk, ecological diversity can buffer ecosystems against environmental change and help maintain the production of natural resources over time.  

“Ecosystem resilience is not just about having many species, but about maintaining the variation within and across scales that helps the individual organisms, species, and ecosystems persist and adapt,” lead author Dr. Kayla Hale explains. 

Human activities such as land transformation, invasive species, and intensive resource extraction often reduce this natural variation. As habitats and biological communities become more homogeneous, ecosystems lose their ability to absorb disturbances through these portfolio effects, creating less predictability in their functioning and increasing the risk of widespread ecological decline.

Variation among habitats, on the other hand, means that disturbances rarely affect every part of a landscape in the same way, allowing intact areas to buffer and support those that are under stress. At the same time, variation among populations, species, and ecological strategies enables biological communities to reorganize under new conditions while continuing to perform essential ecosystem functions, like the production of natural resources. By reinforcing one another across scales, these different types of portfolio effects help ecosystems absorb disturbance and adapt to changing environmental conditions.

“This work highlights biodiversity and habitat heterogeneity as a form of natural insurance,” said Hale. “Protecting this variation helps maintain the capacity of ecosystems to respond to both expected and unexpected environmental challenges.”

Managing for a resilient future

The findings have implications for conservation, ecosystem management, and policies aimed at maintaining ecosystem services in a rapidly changing world. The authors conclude that conserving and restoring this diversity of habitats, species, and interactions may be one of the most effective strategies available for both helping ecosystems adapt to ongoing global change and ensuring their ability to function reliably for future generations.

About the Study

The study, Managing for resilience with ecological structure: Portfolio effects in the Laurentian Great Lakes, was conducted in part by researchers at the Centre for Ecosystem Management and contributes to a growing body of work examining how ecosystems respond to multiple, interacting global stressors. This work was supported by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Directorate for Biological Sciences (National Science Foundation). It was published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment on June 25, 2026.

Reference: Hale, K.R., Fernandes, T.J., O'Connor, R.F., Ward, C.A., Cazelles, K., Bernhardt, J.R., Chu, C., Giacomini, H.C., Koeberle, A., Koops, M.A., Ludsin, S.A., Muir, A.M., Stewart, T., Tucker, C., Tunney, T.D. and McCann, K.S. (2026), Managing for resilience with ecological structure: Portfolio effects in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Front Ecol Environ e70057. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.70057

About the Centre for Ecosystem Management

The Centre for Ecosystem Management, operating out of the University of Guelph and funded through the Department of Fisheries & Oceans and Great Lakes Fishery Commission, advances research on the structure, function, and management of ecosystems across terrestrial and aquatic environments. Through interdisciplinary research and collaboration, the CEM works to develop science-based solutions to contemporary environmental challenges in the Great Lakes and beyond.

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Journal

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

DOI

10.1002/fee.70057 

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Managing for resilience with ecological structure: Portfolio effects in the Laurentian Great Lakes

A Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite image of the Great Lakes region.

Credit

NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response Team

 

The buffering effects of (a) a diverse ecosystem are contrasted with (b) the reduced buffering capacity of a less diverse ecosystem when confronted with a disturbance such as an invasive species or environmental change. Greater buffering capacity can enhance an ecosystem's ability to adapt, recover, and continue providing important ecological services under changing environmental conditions.

Credit

Centre for Ecosystem Management

Israelis worry about weakening connection with younger Jewish Americans

JERUSALEM (AP) — Since 2000, Taglit-Birthright Israel has brought a million Jewish young adults from the United States and elsewhere for a free 10-day “discovery” tour of Israel. The organization’s CEO says it’s more necessary than ever to show what their connection to Israel could be like beyond controversial politics.

Giovanna Dell'orto

August 3, 2026 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis across political and religious lines are worried about the weakening connection with younger Jewish Americans — who, according to a recent AP-NORC poll, tend to consider support for Israel less crucial to their Jewish identity than older adults.

“It’s extremely important to us,” said Itai Nixon, who leads the diaspora department for Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. “We’re the state of the Jewish people, not just Israelis.”

Lesley Sachs, who has protested the current Israeli government and chairs the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, also considers a close relationship with diaspora Jews a “strategic asset” for both Israel and Jews worldwide.

So she’s greatly concerned about diaspora Jews losing the sense that Israel can be a homeland for them, especially as rising antisemitism targets them regardless of political and religious affiliations.

“That was always really, really important that everybody around the world, especially after the Holocaust, knows that there is a country that will always take them,” Sachs said in her synagogue in Tel Aviv. “This is already a few generations after, and this is less prominent in their DNA. And I think that this is really a failure on the part of both Israel and world Jewry, that we have not managed to keep that prominent.”

Since 2000, Taglit-Birthright Israel has brought a million Jewish young adults from the United States and elsewhere for a free 10-day “discovery” tour of Israel. The organization’s CEO says it’s more necessary than ever to show what their connection to Israel could be like beyond controversial politics.

“That really increases the importance of my job to expose people to what they give up on,” said Gidi Mark. “What we give them is a mirror.”

The staunch Israel-US relationship shows some cracks

Israel and the United States have long been staunch allies. U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Washington earlier this week to discuss the war against Iran they launched together five months ago.

“The United States is perceived as the best friend of Israel in the entire world, and that’s still the case,” said Tamar Hermann, who directs the Israel Democracy Institute’s Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research in Jerusalem.

Divisions over the ceasefire in the Iran war, however, have weakened Jewish Israelis’ belief that Trump prioritizes Israel’s security — from 64% in March to 26% in June — according to the center.

Amid diplomatic tensions, the role of Jewish Americans who historically lobbied for political, military and financial support for Israel gains new prominence, Israelis said. And that deepens the concern that many young progressive Americans, including Jews, now see supporting Israel in any way as irreconcilable with their worldview.

The decline in support for Israel has become particularly stark since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians in southern Israel, and abducted 251 others. Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, which was part of the recently dissolved Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

That in turn ignited protests across the United States, especially on college campuses.

“Holocaust, refugees, the importance of Israel in times of need abroad, and the fact that Israel is a small country fighting for its existence … that’s history they read in a book,” Sachs said of younger Jewish Americans. “They weren’t emotionally part of it in any way or any form. And so they look at their values and the things that they believe in. And they don’t see it in Israel.”

Jewish Americans have a complicated relationship with Israel

Only about 4 in 10 religious Jewish adults under 45 in the United States say that supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important for their Jewish identity, while about half of older religious Jewish adults do, according to the AP-NORC poll.

The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults — including people who identify as Jewish by religion and religiously unaffiliated people who identify as Jewish through culture, ethnicity or family background — also found that only about half of religious adults say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified. The number drops to 2 in 10 among Jewish adults without a religious affiliation.

At the same time, about 6 in 10 Jewish adults say prejudice against Jewish people is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the United States today.

To many Israelis, safety threats against Jews make it all the more tragic — and dangerous — that young Jewish Americans do not see the state of Israel as a refuge or even an ally.

“Antisemitism sadly helps us to explain why a Jewish homeland is not a bad idea,” said Asaf Zamir, a deputy mayor of Tel Aviv who served as consul general in New York. “Opposing the government is fine, but you cannot understand your history as a Jew without understanding the part of Israel in it.”

Israel reaches out to secular and liberal Jews in North America

In order to promote deeper attachment between Israel and diaspora Jews, both the government and religious organizations are reinforcing exchange programs. For decades, young Israelis have traveled to Jewish summer camps across North America, and non-Israeli Jews get free trips to Israel.

“To see Israel and meet Israelis is the gold standard,” Itai Nixon said of programs bringing teens to the country.

Taglit-Birthright’s Gidi Mark said that since 2023, with multiple wars, tour participants are fewer — and their reactions to touring Israel have also changed. He recalled one participant shouting “Israel! Israel!” outside his hotel just because he felt safe to express himself.

“These people don’t feel free to experience who they are in the places that they are coming from,” Mark said.

These and other initiatives are focusing on secular Jews and adherents to Reform Judaism. The largest branch of the religion in North America, it emphasizes progressive values such as social justice.

Orthodox Jews abroad tend to have stronger ties to Israel — and Orthodox Jews in Israel tend to see themselves as closer to diaspora Jews than do secular Israelis, Hermann said.

Within the Israeli Reform movement, which is a small part of Judaism in the country, there’s a push to send more young Israelis to the United States, including as camp counselors.

“That kind of action is important, that one-on-one connection saying, ‘You know what, we believe in the same things you do. Really, we have the same ideology in general, and we feel we need to change Israel together,'” Sachs said. “We need to be partners in making Israel the country that we all need.”

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Alma Edry, 18, is spending two months as a counselor at a progressive Jewish summer camp in Ontario with teens and young adults from Canada and the United States. She said her biggest surprise has been “that Israel is such a big deal for people outside the country.”

“Most of their friends are anti-Israel,” she said of the campers. “This is their chance to celebrate their connection.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Canadian miner makes its case to supply antimony to the U.S. military

By

Anam Khan

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Published: August 04, 2026 

Aerial view of initial drilling during the maiden Phase 1 program at the Howells Lake Antimony-Gold Project in northwestern Ontario’s Thunder Bay Mining Division, April 2026. (Photo: Critical One Energy Inc.)

A Canadian miner is trying to position its antimony deposit in Ontario as part of the United States’ future defence supply chain.

While Toronto’s Critical One Energy searches for more antimony underground, it is also trying to secure U.S. government funding.

In doing so, it’s trying to prove its resources are domestic enough for the U.S. government to buy.

The company says it is currently in the middle of a $9-million drill program at its Howells Lake antimony-gold project in northwestern Ontario to rebuild North America’s supply chain.

The strategy comes as the U.S. government is heavily prioritizing domestic mining and processing to break its reliance on China.

“We’re strategically trying to fix a problem that’s 40-plus years in the making, and that is this broken supply chain that North America is endeavouring to repair,” Critical One Energy, CEO Duane Parnham told BNN Bloomberg.

To make its case that an Ontario project can still compete for U.S. defence contracts, the company hired retired U.S. Army General Charles A. Flynn as a strategic advisor.

“My role… is to make it apparent that we have a problem,” Flynn told BNN Bloomberg.

“We basically have an anemic, if not incredibly weak, processing capacity inside the United States, like many countries.”

Building a North American supply chain

The U.S. government has already begun directing public funding toward rebuilding its antimony supply chain after China, which dominates the supply chain, imposed strict export restrictions, triggering a historic price spike.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government awarded US$27 million through the Defense Production Act to the U.S. Antimony Corp. It also gave US$80 million to Perpetua Resources last year for a domestic “ground-to-round” antimony trisulfide supply chain in Idaho, which is expected to supply the U.S. military.

Drill core sample from Hole 6 at Howells Lake, where the spring 2026 campaign intersected 4.0 metres of massive stibnite grading 70.2% antimony, approaching the theoretical pure chemical composition of the mineral. (Photo: Critical One Energy Inc.)

Parnham says Canada is also trying to strengthen its role in critical minerals by building more value-added processing instead of simply exporting raw materials.

“We’re seeing a lot of inward activity from NATO partners,” he says.

“The narrative coming from our politicians now… is let’s try and value-add. Let’s repair the supply chain in Canada. Let’s create jobs. Let’s create an economic environment whereby the critical minerals become more of a Canadian, NATO, U.S. play.”

‘We need to do it with our friends, allies, partners...’

Flynn says the U.S. lacks sufficient processing capacity for many critical minerals and will need supplies from allies like Canada while it rebuilds its domestic capabilities.

He says the goal is to create multiple sources of supply and multiple processing options across North America rather than relying on a single country.

“We need to do it with our friends, allies, partners and neighbours in the Western Hemisphere,” Flynn says.

Critical One is not the only Canadian firm aiming to support U.S. supply chains. Vancouver-based NevGold Corp. is extracting antimony from surface-level historic mine waste at its Nevada project.

• How this Canadian miner could suddenly be central to U.S. national security

An aerial view of the Limousine Butte project in Nevada. The site, which was last mined for gold in the early 1990s, is being re-evaluated for its untapped antimony potential. (Photo Credit: NevGold Corp.)

Flynn says antimony is important because small amounts are essential in many defence products like ammunition primers and igniters.

Having the mineral in the ground, he says, is only one part of the challenge.

“We have to mine it, separate it, refine it… and then bring that finished product to the defence industry.”

High-grade drilling expands the project

The Howells Lake antimony-gold project remains in the exploration stage and does not yet have a mine permit or production timeline.

Parnham says the project is based on a historical estimate containing roughly 48 million pounds of antimony identified through drilling between 1978 and 1984, but says the current drilling program continues to expand the mineralization.

Initial work underway during the maiden Phase 1 drill program at the Howells Lake Antimony-Gold Project in northwestern Ontario’s Thunder Bay Mining Division, April 2026. (Photo: Critical One Energy Inc.)

He says the company acquired 100 per cent interest in the Howells Lake Antimony Gold Project 16 to 18 months ago and has been trying to upgrade it from a historical resource discovered in 1978 and drilled into the 1980s.

“And then you know all activities out there dropped…plus, the fact that probably nobody knows what antimony was back then. So it was a very difficult endeavor, says Parnham.

The company is roughly halfway through its $9-million drill campaign after completing 34 holes.

It announced several high-grade drill results, including four metres grading 70.2 per cent antimony and another interval of 4.17 metres grading 27.35 per cent antimony.

“We know we can process material very cleanly,” says Parnham, adding that the technology is less costly and the resource is “near surface.”

He also says the area benefits from being 120 kilometers from the Ring of Fire, Ontario’s new critical minerals economic zone, which has received a $1 billion government commitment.

“I’m calling our area the Outer Ring of Fire because we’re actually within that corridor,” says Parnham.

“It’s not hard to get our material to market. It is remote at the time right now, but the infrastructure is being rolled out for us, so that’s quite easy.”

A long-term strategy

Neither Flynn nor Parnham expects North America’s critical minerals supply chain to be rebuilt quickly.

Flynn estimated restoring processing capacity and broader supply chains could take at least five to seven years, with a full recovery likely taking more than a decade.

“This is not going to be solved in one election cycle, one administration cycle or one funding cycle,” he says.

He says the industry is playing catch-up after years of limited investment in exploration.

“When you say, ‘Hey, I need antimony,’ the explorers like Critical One haven’t been exploring for the last 10 years or more,” he says.

“How do you turn on a switch to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to start mining antimony in today’s environment?’ It’s near impossible.”

He says the renewed attention on critical minerals gives the industry momentum it has lacked for years.

“Now everyone is paying attention,” says Flynn.

“And that’s what excites me. It’s not just us, gold bugs or us metal guys. It’s everyone, and there’s a great need for it.”

Anam Khan

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Journalist, BNNBloomberg.ca