scholarly journals THE REGIME SHIFTS DATABASE: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING REGIME SHIFTS IN SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinette Oonsie Biggs ◽  
Garry D Peterson ◽  
Juan Carlos Carlos Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Regime Shifts ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Open Access Database ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
Ecological Feedbacks ◽  
Available Information

This paper presents the Regime Shifts Database (RSDB), a new online, open-access database that uses a novel consistent framework to systematically analyze regime shifts based on their impacts, key drivers, underlying feedbacks, and management options. The database currently contains 27 generic types of regime shifts, and over 300 specific case studies of a variety of regime shifts. These regime shifts occur across diverse types of systems and are driven by many different types of processes. Besides impacting provisioning and regulating services, our work shows that regime shifts substantially impact cultural and aesthetic ecosystem services. We found that social-ecological feedbacks are difficult to characterize and more work is needed to develop new tools and approaches to better understand social-ecological regime shifts. We hope that the database will stimulate further research on regime shifts and make available information that can be used in management, planning and assessment.

scholarly journals Delayed behavioural shifts undermine the sustainability of social–ecological systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1868) ◽  
pp. 20171192 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-S. Lafuite ◽  
C. de Mazancourt ◽  
M. Loreau
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Ecological Feedbacks ◽  
Mixed Equilibria

Natural habitat destruction and fragmentation generate a time-delayed loss of species and associated ecosystem services. As social–ecological systems (SESs) depend on a range of ecosystem services, lagged ecological dynamics may affect their long-term sustainability. Here, we investigate the role of consumption changes for sustainability, under a time-delayed ecological feedback on agricultural production. We use a stylized model that couples the dynamics of biodiversity, technology, human demography and compliance with a social norm prescribing sustainable consumption. Compliance with the sustainable norm reduces both the consumption footprint and the vulnerability of SESs to transient overshoot-and-collapse population crises. We show that the timing and interaction between social, demographic and ecological feedbacks govern the transient and long-term dynamics of the system. A sufficient level of social pressure (e.g. disapproval) applied on the unsustainable consumers leads to the stable coexistence of unsustainable and sustainable or mixed equilibria, where both defectors and conformers coexist. Under bistability conditions, increasing extinction debts reduces the resilience of the system, thus favouring abrupt regime shifts towards unsustainable pathways. Given recent evidence of large extinction debts, such results call for farsightedness and a better understanding of time delays when studying the sustainability of coupled SESs.

scholarly journals Evolution and effects of the social-ecological system over a millennium in China’s Loess Plateau

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (41) ◽  
pp. eabc0276
Author(s):  
Xutong Wu ◽  
Yongping Wei ◽  
Bojie Fu ◽  
Shuai Wang ◽  
Yan Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Regime Shifts ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Slow Expansion ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Ecological Conservation

Understanding the regime shifts of social-ecological systems (SES) and their local and spillover effects over a long time frame is important for future sustainability. We provide a perspective of processes unfolding over time to identify the regime shifts of a SES based on changes in the relationships between SES components while also addressing their drivers and local and spillover effects. The applicability of this approach has been demonstrated by analyzing the evolution over the past 1000 years of the SES in China’s Loess Plateau (LP). Five evolutionary phases were identified: “fast expansion of cultivation,” “slow expansion of cultivation,” “landscape engineering for higher production,” “transition from cultivation to ecological conservation,” and “revegetation for environment.” Our study establishes empirical links between the state (phase) of a SES to its drivers and effects. Lessons of single-goal driven and locally focused SES management in the LP, which did not consider these links, have important implications to long-term planning and policy formulation of SES.

scholarly journals Long-term transients help explain regime shifts in consumer-renewable resource systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten B. Eppinga ◽  
Koen Siteur ◽  
Mara Baudena ◽  
Martin O. Reader ◽  
Hanneke van ’t Veen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Stable State ◽  
Renewable Resource ◽  
Regime Shifts ◽  
Transient Dynamics ◽  
Time Lags ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Island State ◽  
Transient System

AbstractAs planetary boundaries loom, there is an urgent need to develop sustainable equilibriums between societies and the resources they consume, thereby avoiding regime shifts to undesired states. Transient system trajectories to a stable state may differ substantially, posing significant challenges to distinguishing sustainable from unsustainable trajectories. We use stylized models to show how feedbacks between anthropogenic harvest regimes and resource availability drive transient dynamics. We show how substantial time lags may occur between interventions and social-ecological outcomes, and that sudden system collapses need not be linked to recent environmental changes. Historical reconstructions of island state populations show a variety of transient dynamics that closely corresponds to model expectations based on island differences in productivity and harvesting regime. We conclude that vulnerable social-ecological systems may persist when the population:resource ratio remains within a viable range of intermediate (rather than small) values, which implies that averting environmental crises may require counter-intuitive measures.

scholarly journals Harnessing Insights from Social-Ecological Systems Research for Monitoring Sustainable Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odirilwe Selomane ◽  
Belinda Reyers ◽  
Reinette Biggs ◽  
Maike Hamann
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Ecological Feedbacks ◽  
Development Outcomes

The United Nations’ Agenda 2030 marks significant progress towards sustainable development by making explicit the intention to integrate previously separate social, economic and environmental agendas. Despite this intention, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which were adopted to implement the agenda, are fragmented in their formulation and largely sectoral. We contend that while the design of the SDG monitoring is based on a systems approach, it still misses most of the dynamics and complexity relevant to sustainability outcomes. We propose that insights from the study of social-ecological systems offer a more integrated approach to the implementation of Agenda 2030, particularly the monitoring of progress towards sustainable development outcomes. Using five key features highlighted by the study of social-ecological systems (SESs) relevant to sustainable development: (1) social-ecological feedbacks, (2) resilience, (3) heterogeneity, (4) nonlinearity, and (5) cross-scale dynamics. We analyze the current set of SDG indicators based on these features to explore current progress in making them operational. Our analysis finds that 59% of the indicators account for heterogeneity, 33% for cross-scale dynamics, 23% for nonlinearities, and 18% and 17%, respectively, for social-ecological feedbacks and resilience. Our findings suggest limited use of complex SES science in the current design of SDG monitoring, but combining our findings with recent studies of methods to operationalize SES features suggests future directions for sustainable development monitoring for the current as well as post 2030 set of indicators.

Engaging Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Environmental Management Could Alleviate Scale Mismatches in Social–Ecological Systems

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (8) ◽  
pp. 699-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark R Herse ◽  
Phil O’B Lyver ◽  
Nigel Scott ◽  
Angus R McIntosh ◽  
Simon C Coats ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Ecological Feedbacks ◽  
Fine Resolution

Abstract Scale mismatches in social–ecological systems constrain conservation by obscuring signals of environmental change, which could otherwise feed back to inform adaptive responses and solutions. We argue that engaging indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) in place-based environmental management could generate the fine-resolution information and workforce needed to alleviate scale mismatches. We illustrate our argument using a case study initiated by Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand and demonstrate that the current broad scales of hunting regulation and assessment in black swan (kakī anau, Cygnus atratus) management could obscure local ecological drivers of populations. Many IPLC can facilitate adaptive place-based management by continually monitoring ecological feedbacks (e.g., population numbers, habitat conditions) at fine resolutions through customary resource use and observations. However, disregard for IPLC rights, scepticism of traditional ecological knowledge, restricted opportunity to connect with resources, compartmentalization of resource management, and insufficient funding limit IPLC engagement and must be overcome to alleviate scale mismatches.

scholarly journals Inequality and the Biosphere

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maike Hamann ◽  
Kevin Berry ◽  
Tomas Chaigneau ◽  
Tracie Curry ◽  
Robert Heilmayr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Systemic Understanding

Rising inequalities and accelerating global environmental change pose two of the most pressing challenges of the twenty-first century. To explore how these phenomena are linked, we apply a social-ecological systems perspective and review the literature to identify six different types of interactions (or “pathways”) between inequality and the biosphere. We find that most of the research so far has only considered one-directional effects of inequality on the biosphere, or vice versa. However, given the potential for complex dynamics between socioeconomic and environmental factors within social-ecological systems, we highlight examples from the literature that illustrate the importance of cross-scale interactions and feedback loops between inequality and the biosphere. This review draws on diverse disciplines to advance a systemic understanding of the linkages between inequality and the biosphere, specifically recognizing cross-scale feedbacks and the multidimensional nature of inequality.

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