Overview and Objectives

This lesson discusses what alternative stable states and regime shifts are and how they relate to understanding and interpreting natural phenomena.

This lesson covers the concept of alternative stable state and regime shifts. At the completion of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Describe the concepts of alternative states or regimes, thresholds, and regime shifts and how they come together under alternative state theory
2. Explain how scale, resilience, and hysteresis play a role in alternative stable state theory
3. Identify the management value of alternative stable state theory, its application to real world problems, and its role in global change