The importance of transient social dynamics for restoring ecosystems beyond ecological tipping points.

ABSTRACT: Regime shift modeling and management generally focus on tipping points, early warning indicators, and the prevention of abrupt shifts to undesirable states. Few studies assess the potential for restoring a deteriorating ecosystem that is on a transition pathway toward an undesirable state. During the transition, feedbacks that stabilize the new regime are still weak, providing an opportunity to reverse the ongoing shift. Here, we present a social-ecological model that explores both how transient social processes affect ecological dynamics in the vicinity of a tipping point to reinforce the desired state and how social mechanisms of policy implementation affect restoration time. We simulate transitions of a lake, policy making, and behavioral change by lake polluters to study the time lags

SUBMITTER: Martin R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7007529 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature