Feedbacks Interactions and Regime Shifts

This chapter discusses feedbacks, interactions, and regime shifts in social-ecological systems, which can also be thought of as tipping points or critical transitions, and which have some sort of stickiness -- a distinct change over time that persists. This is useful because we often think that change is linear, but now we see change that is abrupt and persistent. These types of changes often have large impacts on people. Regime shifts are not easy to reverse and are difficult to predict; Professor Peterson gives the example of coral reefs. Regime shifts are maintained by feedbacks; and regime shifts can be caused by shocks, which cause the feedback process to be overwhelmed and the system to shift from one state to another, or change the feedback processes themselves which reduce the resilience of the system to persist in a state. Regime shifts can be managed by reducing perturbations, enhancing feedback loops, and considering the possibilities of novel regimes to avoid or to restore.

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