Ecological Surprises

Professor Peterson gives four classic examples of ecological surprise from the twentieth century, namely, DDT-resistant mosquitoes, biomagnification of toxins in food, agriculture changing disease ecology, and the simplification of ecosystems in North American and Europe. Novel social-ecological surprises are the regime shifts that we see now; examples are given of these regime shifts. These can be understood in terms of global forces that change how local places are connected and work. The example of blue and brown water in agriculture is given. There are two ways to look at ecological surprise: how do local places function and respond, and how do top-down processes drive these systems in different ways?