Regime shifts, thresholds and multiple stable states in freshwater ecosystems; a critical appraisal of the evidence
Regime shifts, thresholds and multiple stable states in freshwater ecosystems; a critical appraisal of the evidence
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DOI：
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.02.045
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发表时间：
2015-11-15
影响因子：
9.8
通讯作者：
Mac Nally, Ralph
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Capon, Samantha J.;Lynch, A. Jasmyn J.;Mac Nally, Ralph
生态系统状态转移、阈值和替代或多重稳定状态的概念在生态和环境管理文献中被广泛使用。当应用于水生生态系统时，这些术语的使用并不一致，反映了生态系统类型之间支持证据的不同程度。虽然世界各地许多水生生态系统已经退化，但相对于历史变异的范围而言，变化的程度和原因知之甚少。由澳大利亚生态分析和综合中心支持的一个工作组审查了135份关于淡水生态系统的论文，以评估压力引起淡水生态系统非线性变化的证据;这些论文在标题和关键词中使用了表明突然和非线性变化的术语，因此是一个有正偏差的样本。我们仔细审查了论文的研究背景和方法，生态系统特征和重点，考虑的压力和生态响应类型，以及报告的变化类型（即，渐进的、非线性的、滞后的或不可逆的变化）。在这些研究中，几乎没有经验证据表明制度的转变和多个或替代稳定状态之间的变化，尽管在温带气候的浅水湖泊中，有一些以浑浊植物为主导的状态和以清水、水生植物为主导的状态之间的转变。我们发现有限的理解的相关理论概念的微妙之处，并遇到一些机械的研究，调查或确定生态响应和名义压力之间的因果关系。我们的研究结果反映了河口，近岸和海洋水生生态系统的评论，表明，虽然政权转移和替代稳定状态的概念已成为突出的科学和管理文献，其经验基础是薄弱的特定环境设置之外。在未来的研究和管理应用中，这些概念的应用应包括压力和随之而来的生态变化之间的机械联系的证据。还应明确考虑观察到的时间动态是否代表沿连续沿着的变化，而不是绝对不同的状态。(C)2015 Elsevier B. V.版权所有。
The concepts of ecosystem regime shifts, thresholds and alternative or multiple stable states are used extensively in the ecological and environmental management literature. When applied to aquatic ecosystems, these terms are used inconsistently reflecting differing levels of supporting evidence among ecosystem types. Although many aquatic ecosystems around the world have become degraded, the magnitude and causes of changes, relative to the range of historical variability, are poorly known. A working group supported by the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) reviewed 135 papers on freshwater ecosystems to assess the evidence for pressure-induced non-linear changes in freshwater ecosystems; these papers used terms indicating sudden and non-linear change in their titles and key words, and so was a positively biased sample. We scrutinized papers for study context and methods, ecosystem characteristics and focus, types of pressures and ecological responses considered, and the type of change reported (i.e., gradual, non-linear, hysteretic or irreversible change). There was little empirical evidence for regime shifts and changes between multiple or alternative stable states in these studies although some shifts between turbid phytoplankton-dominated states and clear-water, macrophyte-dominated states were reported in shallow lakes in temperate climates. We found limited understanding of the subtleties of the relevant theoretical concepts and encountered few mechanistic studies that investigated or identified cause-and-effect relationships between ecological responses and nominal pressures. Our results mirror those of reviews for estuarine, nearshore and marine aquatic ecosystems, demonstrating that although the concepts of regime shifts and alternative stable states have become prominent in the scientific and management literature, their empirical underpinning is weak outside of a specific environmental setting. The application of these concepts in future research and management applications should include evidence on the mechanistic links between pressures and consequent ecological change. Explicit consideration should also be given to whether observed temporal dynamics represent variation along a continuum rather than categorically different states. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.