Abstract
Over the last decades many marine systems have undergone drastic changes often resulting in new ecologically structured and sometimes economically less valuable states. In particular, the additive effects of anthropogenic stressors (e.g., fishing, climate change) seem to play a fundamental role in causing unexpected and sudden shifts between system states, generally termed regime shifts. Recently, many examples of regime shifts have been documented worldwide and their mechanisms and consequences have been vigorously discussed. Understanding causes and mechanisms of regime shifts is of great importance for the sustainable use of natural resources and their management, especially in marine ecosystems. Hence, we conducted a session entitled “Ecosystem dynamics in a changing world, regime shifts and resilience in marine communities” during the 8th YOUMARES conference (Kiel, 13–15th September 2017) to present regime shifts concepts and examples to a broad range of marine scientists (e.g., biologists and/or ecologists, physicists, climatologists, sociologists) and highlight their importance for the marine ecosystems worldwide.
Highlights
Today, living marine resources represent a primary source of proteins for more than 2.6 billion people and support the livelihoods of about 11% of the world’s population (UNESCO 2012; FAO 2014)
Regime shifts are abrupt changes that can happen in complex systems worldwide at different temporal and spatial scales, depending on the resilience of the systems (Scheffer et al 2001; deYoung et al 2008)
It is extremely important to study and understand these mechanisms since many regime shifts have led to catastrophic changes including ecological, social and economic losses worldwide (Mumby 2009; Steneck and Wahle 2013; Blenckner et al 2015b)
Summary
Today, living marine resources represent a primary source of proteins for more than 2.6 billion people and support the livelihoods of about 11% of the world’s population (UNESCO 2012; FAO 2014). These examples highlight the importance and necessity to understand regime shifts mechanisms for a sustainable use of marine resources in order to provide ecosystem services and benefits for human communities (Doak et al 2008).
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