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Contribute or suggest an example

We warmly welcome all contributions to the database! Please use the links below to contribute an example of a generic type of regime shift, a specific case study of a particular regime shift, or to suggest a potential regime shift or case study for future inclusion.


Add Regime Shift
These are generic descriptions of types of regime shifts that have been observed at multiple locations or case studies (e.g. eutrophication). They can also include unique large scale subcontinental or global regime shifts (e.g. collapse of the Greenland ice sheet). We suggest filling out the description offline using the Regime Shift Template, and then copying and pasting the details into the online form.


Add Case Study
These are specific examples of regime shifts in particular places or case studies (e.g. eutrophication in the Baltic Sea). We suggest filling out the description offline using the Case Study Template, and then copying and pasting the details into the online form.


Suggest a Regime Shift or Case Study
Please let us know if you have suggestions for potential regime shifts or case studies to be included – e.g. if you are unable to write them up yourself, or are unsure if they fit. You are also welcome to contact us with questions at info@regimeshifts.org.


Regime Shift / Case Study Suggestions

Total 21 suggestions found

Suggested Regime Shifts

  1. Aquaculture growth has led to worries about overfishing and reduction in wild-caught food fish supply because of increased demand for fish meal. As such, the price ratio between fish meal and soybean meal has received much attention as an indicator o ... Read More

    References

    • Asche, F., Oglend, A. and Tveteras, S. (2012), Regime Shifts in the Fish Meal/Soybean Meal Price Ratio. Journal of Agricultural Economics. doi: 10.1111/j.1477-9552.2012.00357.x
  2. Dynamic coupling of North Pacific and North Atlantic climates may lead to critical transitions in Earth’s climate system. ... Read More

    References

    • Synchronization of North Pacific and Greenland climates preceded abrupt deglacial warming
      Summer K. Praetorius and Alan C. Mix
      Science 25 July 2014: 345 (6195), 444-448. [DOI:10.1126/science.1252000]
  3. Environmental transmission can select for increased virulence when direct transmission is low. Increasing the efficiency of direct transmission gives rise to an evolutionary bi-stability, with coexistence of different levels of virulence. The overloo ... Read More

    References

    • Roche, Benjamin, John M. Drake, Pejman Rohani. 2011. The curse of the Pharaoh revisited: evolutionary bi-stability in environmentally transmitted pathogens.
      Ecology Letters DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01619.x
  4. In the Brazilian Amazon, private land accounts for the majority of remaining native vegetation. Understanding how land-use change affects the composition and distribution of biodiversity in farmlands is critical for improving conservation strategies ... Read More

    References

    • Ochoa-Quintero, J. M., Gardner, T. A., Rosa, I., de Barros Ferraz, S. F. and Sutherland, W. J. (2015), Thresholds of species loss in Amazonian deforestation frontier landscapes. Conservation Biology, 29: 440–451. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12446
  5. Regime shifts in biodiversity associated with landscape fragmentation. ... Read More

    References

    • Pardini R, Bueno Ade A, Gardner TA, Prado PI, Metzger JP. 2010. Beyond the fragmentation threshold hypothesis: regime shifts in biodiversity across fragmented landscapes. PLoS One 5(10):e13666.
  6. If projected sea level rise increase faster than the hability of mangroves to re-establish in higher areas, such ecosystems will be substantially reduced in the future. This regime shift is speculative and highly uncertain. However, mangroves are imp ... Read More

    References

    • Gilman, E., J. Ellison, N. Duke, and C. Field. 2008. Threats to mangroves from climate change and adaptation options: a review. Aquatic Botany 89: 237-250.
    • Gilman, E., J. Ellison, and R. Coleman. 2007a. Assessment of mangrove response to projected relative sea-level rise and recent historical reconstruction of shoreline position. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 124: 112-134.
    • Leadley, P. Biodiversity Scenarios: Projections of 21st Century Change in Biodiversity and Associated Ecosystem Services: A Technical Report for the Global Biodiversity Outlook 3. (2010).
    • Morris, J. T., P. V. Sundareshwar, C. T. Nietch, B. Kjerfve, and D. R. Cahoon. 2002. Responses of coastal wetlands to rising sea-level. Ecology 83: 2869-2877.
  7. What they found was a remarkable global consistency between access to fish and seabird breeding success. Wherever they occurred in the world the effect of low fish was similar. Österblom and his colleagues found that breeding reaches a plateau a ... Read More

    References

    • Philippe M. Cury, Ian L. Boyd, Sylvain Bonhommeau, Tycho Anker-Nilssen, Robert J.M. Crawford, Robert W. Furness, James A. Mills, Eugene J. Murphy, Henrik u00d6sterblom, Michelle Paleczny, John F. Piatt, Jean-Paul Roux, Lynne Shannon and William J. Sydeman. 2011. Global seabird response to forage fish depletion u2014 one-third for the birds. Science 334, Issue 6063.
    • http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/researchnews/saveathirdforthebirds.5.3f0adc2c1344ec370d380001569.html
  8. Shift to obesity in many wealthier societies, linked to a change in food systems and people's relationship to food? ... Read More

    References

    • ?

Suggested Case Studies

  1. Two major ecosystem regime shifts in the southern Benguela were identified by Howard et al. (2007) – the first was mainly attributed to overfishing activities with some environmental influence that occurred in the late 1950s. The second regime ... Read More

    References

    • Howard, J. a. E., Jarre, A., Clark, A. E. & Moloney, C. L. 2007. Application of the sequential t-test algorithm for analysing regime shifts to the southern Benguela ecosystem. African Journal of Marine Science, 29: 437-451.
  2. Following intense overfishing in the 1970s, the western stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) experienced a long period of depressed abundance, which has been attributed to failure of the population to periodically produce large numbers of ... Read More

    References

    • Secor, D. H., Rooker, J. R., Gahagan, B. I., Siskey, M. R. and Wingate, R. W. (2015), Depressed resilience of bluefin tuna in the western atlantic and age truncation. Conservation Biology, 29: 400–408. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12392