Stability, robustness, vulnerability and resilience of agricultural systems. A review

Global warming and price volatility are increasing uncertainty for the future of agriculture. Therefore, agricultural systems must be sustainable not only under average conditions, but also under extreme changes of productivity, economy, environment and social context. Here, we review four concepts: stability, robustness, vulnerability and resilience. Those concepts are commonly used but are sometimes difficult to distinguish due to the lack of clear boundaries. Here, we clarify the role of these concepts in addressing agronomic issues. Our main findings are as follows: (1) agricultural systems face different types of perturbations, from small and usual perturbations to extreme and unpredictable changes; (2) stability, robustness, vulnerability and resilience have been increasingly applied to analyze the agricultural context in order to predict the system response under changing conditions; (3) the four concepts are distinguished by the nature of the system components and by the type of perturbation studied; (4) assessment methods must be tested under contrasted situations; and (5) the major options allowing system adaptation under extreme and unpredictable changes are the increase of diversity and the increase of the adaptive capacity.