Thresholds in Ecological and Social–Ecological Systems: a Developing Database

By B. Walker, Jacqueline A. Meyers. 2004

632 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Increasing interest in regime shifts in ecological and linked social-ecological systems (SESs) has placed a strong focus on the thresholds of change. However, research into this topic has been hampered by a lack of empirical data. This paper describes a developing database established to address this need. The database is freely available and comprises a set of summarized published examples and a searchable bibliographic database of publications on the topic. Thresholds in the database are characterized in terms of a standardized set of 24 descriptors, including the variables along which they occur, the variables that change, and the factors that have driven the change. Readers are encouraged to contribute new examples. Examples range from conceptual models to empirical evidence. The former predominate in the literature and, although they make valuable contributions and will continue to be included, the intention is build up the number of examples based on data. Examples are presented in terms of whether the threshold occurs in the ecological system, the social system, or both, and the direction of interactions between systems. The paper concludes with some initial observations on thresholds based on the examples included so far, and poses some questions for future research. Research on a typology of thresholds is a priority topic in the emerging area of "sustainability science" and it requires a rich database of empirical data.

Subfields: Environmental Engineering, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d348cb3027abab71435dcb937798108000a12ab6

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Citations in the corpus

How resilient are farming households and communities to a changing climate in Africa? A gender-based perspective (2015, background): “This is an open access articl 4.0/). major alterations in structure or function will be required (Kates et al., 2012; Walker and Meyers, 2004).”
Coupled Human and Natural Systems (2007, background): “Among the 64 examples analyzed in a recent study, nearly 40% of the regime shifts were irreversible (59).”
Defining tipping points for social-ecological systems scholarship—an interdisciplinary literature review (2018, methodology): “SES papers in our database initially use the terminology of regime shifts, thresholds (Walker and Meyers 2004) and critical transitions.”
Linking future ecosystem services and future human well-being (2006, background): “It is conceivable that some of these adverse ecological surprises (e.g., pollution, erosion, coastal eutrophication, or runaway climate change) could surpass a threshold, overwhelming social capacity and, consequently, damaging human well-being (Walker and Meyers 2004).”
Potential synergies between existing multilateral environmental agreements in the implementation of land use, land-use change and forestry activities (2007, background): “Passing the threshold will result in a regime shift (Walker and Meyers, 2004), which can have significant implications for climate mitigation (e.”
RESILIENCE: THE EMERGENCE OF A PERSPECTIVE FOR SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ANALYSES (2006, background): “Regime shifts between alternate states have been reviewed by Carpenter (2000, 2003), Scheffer et al. (2001), Beisner et al. (2003), Folke et al. (2004) and Walker and Meyers (2004).”
Invasive alien species on islands: impacts, distribution, interactions and management (2017, background): “On islands, over-harvesting of plants and animals by humans has been augmented by predation or herbivory by IASs, leading to rapid species extinctions (Cheke & Hume 2008) and community regime shifts (Walker & Meyers 2004).”
Green Agriculture: foundations for biodiverse, resilient and productive agricultural systems (2012, background): “Walker and Metes ( 2004 ) describe an evolving database that focuses on ecological and linked social systems, in particular those that exhibit thresholds in relation to the use of ecosystems in natural resource management.”
Transformational capacity and the influence of place and identity (2012, background): “Like any response or adaptive action, transformations can lead to ‘desirable’ or ‘undesirable’ outcomes where ‘desirable’ transformations provide substantial and widely distributed benefits [18].”
Regime Shifts, Resilience, and Biodiversity in Ecosystem Management (2004, background): “Walters & Kitchell (2001) call this dynamic “cultivation/depensation.””
Reconnecting to the Biosphere (2011, background): “In others, the transition may be less dramatic, even though the dynamics of the system has shifted from one attractor to another (Walker and Meyers 2004).”
Ecosystem services: From eye-opening metaphor to complexity blinder (2010, background): “Ecologists have only recently advocated developing a database that might assist in developing improved predictive capability with respect to dire changes in populations and ecosystems (Walker and Meyers, 2003).”