Tipping Points, Adaptation and Transformation in Coupled Human-Ocean Systems

Ecological surprises challenge science and society. While the nature and timing of abrupt changes in ecological organization and function remain poorly understood, emerging evidence points to the existence of regime shifts across a variety of ecosystems worldwide. Yet, unraveling the mechanisms governing their behavior is notoriously difficult because it requires understanding ecological and social phenomena that occur on very different scales of space and time. By way of 3 case studies, I will discuss key characteristics of coupled human-ocean systems and factors that confer their resilience to disturbance. First, research on sea otter recovery in British Columbian kelp forests has reveal evidence of abrupt changes, nonlinear trophic dynamics and the alteration of reef-wide community niches. Occupational multiplicity, experimentation and knowledge exchange offer mechanisms by which to cope with these sudden shifts. Second, recent evidence suggests that prehistoric clam gardens, intertidal rock walls built by indigenous people of the northeastern Pacific during the Holocene, increased clam production and in combination with a diversity of resource use and governance protocols, offered an adaptive strategy that enhanced food security. Finally, by reconstructing historical baselines and simultaneously assessing change in both the social and ecological resilience of the Pacific herring fishery in British Columbia, we were able to pin point sources of conflict and opportunities for governance transformation. Collectively, these case studies reveal that a diverse portfolio of use and management approaches, polycentric governance systems, and learning platforms offer a fruitful ways to enable adaptation and transformation in coupled human-ocean systems.

Speaker:  Anne Salomon, School of Resource & Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University