Final answer:
Ecological Resilience pertains to an ecosystem's ability to absorb disturbances and reorganize while maintaining function and identity, while Engineering Resilience focuses on the speed of return to a stable state after a disturbance in man-made systems.
Step-by-step explanation:
The difference between Ecological Resilience and Engineering Resilience pertains to how each concept defines the ability of a system to cope with disturbances. Ecological Resilience refers to the capacity of an ecosystem to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change, maintaining the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks. It focuses on the ecosystem's ability to switch between multiple stable states. On the other hand, Engineering Resilience is typically concerned with the speed of return to a single stable state following a perturbation, emphasizing efficiency and predictability, often seen in man-made systems.
Therefore, if an ecosystem is considered to be highly resilient from an ecological standpoint, it implies that the ecosystem can not only recover after disturbances but also has the ability to adapt by shifting between different equilibrium states without losing its fundamental characteristics or functions.