Figure 3.19

Figure 3.19 | Observed ecological regime shifts and their drivers in the oceans.

(a) A conceptual representation of ecosystem resilience and regime shifts. Shift from Regime 1 to Regime 2 can be triggered by either a large shock (i.e., an abrupt environmental transition) or gradual internal or external change that erodes the dominant balancing feedbacks, reducing ecosystem resilience (indicated by the shallower dotted line, relative to the deeper ‘valley’ reflecting higher resilience). (Based on Biggs et al., 2018).

(b) The sum of the magnitude and extent of the abrupt community shifts that has been estimated at each geographic cell in the global ocean during 1960–2014, calculated as the ratio of the amplitude of the change in a particular year to the average magnitude of the change over the entire time series (thus, is dimensionless). (Based on Beaugrand et al., 2019).