News

Cooperation is Key in Finding Cost-Effective Managment Solutions in West Maui
February 2017

In a new article published in the Journal of Environmental Management, the Ocean Tipping Points team discusses strategies for land-based source pollution management, demonstrating the benefits of trade-off analyses to help inform management decisions. Cooperation is key, but not alone.


Photo Credit: Piserio

Costly Stakeholder Participation Creates Inertia
November 2016

New researcher from the Ocean Tipping Points team and our Scientific Working Group partners demonstrates how stakeholder meetings with high participation costs attract extreme winners and losers, ultimately potentially leading to inertia in marine systems prone to tipping points.


Photo credit: Mike Baird

At the Top of Their Game
June 2016

Research published last week by postroctoral scholar, Adrian Stier, highlights the factors necessary for successful apex predator recovery.


Photo credit: Flickr/noaaphotolib

Pacific Herring research finds surprising results
March 2016

Ocean Tipping Points collaborators have discovered that experts vary in their perception of the herring food web structure, recovery and management practices as discussed in an article published today in Conservation Letters.


Photo credit: Guy Monty

Ocean Tipping Points team goes to D.C.
February 2016

Ocean Tipping Points Team members met in Washington, DC last week to host a symposium, attend the AAAS conference and meet with environmental agency representatives.


Image source: fxva.com

OTP team holding symposium at 2016 AAAS meeting
February 2016

The symposium, Finding the Balance: Collaboration on Social-Ecological Tipping Points, being held on February 12 as part of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), will discuss innovative ways that scientists and environmental managers are collaborating to prevent ecosystems from tipping into degraded states, and restore systems that have already tipped. 


Photo Credit: Jacob Botter
 

OTP team members publish review on using ecological thresholds in resource management
November 2015

In our new article, “Using Ecological Thresholds to Inform Resource Management: Current Options and Future Possibilities”, we aim to facilitate the transfer of ecological threshold science out of the often technical and specialized realms of theory, modeling, and experimentation and into the realm of practical implementation. 


Photo credit: Katie Davis

Part 4 in our blog series: Seven Principles for managing tipping points
July 2015

In part 4 of our Ecosystems on the Edge blog series we discuss our team's newly developed and published 'Seven Principles for managing tipping points'.


Photo Credit: UCSB Digital Collections

Principles for Managing Marine Ecosystems Prone to Tipping Points Published
July 2015

Kim Selkoe and coauthors from the Ocean Tipping Points project published a new research article today outlining seven management principles for marine ecosystems prone to tipping points


Photo Credit: UCSB Digital Collections

British Columbia First Nations and Province Complete MaPP Marine Plans
April 2015

Marine management took a significant step forward today, with the completion of plans under the Marine Planning Partnership (MaPP) for the North Pacific Coast; a co-led partnership between the Province of B.C. and 18 coastal Nations.
 

Photo Credit: David J Laporte
 

As Sea Stars Die, New Worries About Urchins
April 2015

National Geographic draws attention to a new potential tipping point hitting the California coast in thisc online article. Some urchins waste away, others come out of hiding as the fallout from sea star disease ripples along the California coast.


Photo Credit: UCSB Digital Collections

At the Brink: Ocean Tipping Points Blog
March 2015

Rod Fujita of EDF and the Ocean Tipping Points team describes his personal experiences with tipping points in coral reef systems and how he is working to predict these transitions before they happen bringing new science and new hope to coral reef systems


Photo Credit: James Watt

FISHE Blog: An Online Tool to Overcome Hurdles To Sustainable Fisheries
February 2015

In a recent blog post, researchers Kendra Karr and Rod Fujita explain how the FISHE framework is already helping inform small-scale fisheries management in Mexico, Belize, Cuba, and elsewhere


Wikimedia/Mikhail Rogov

Part 3 in Our New Blog Series: Ecosystems on the Edge
February 2015

In part 3 of our new blog series we discuss the 'Causes and consequences of tipped coral reef ecosystems in Hawai‘i'.


Photo Credit: Lindsey Kramer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Ocean Tipping Points Video: When Little Changes Can Make a Big Difference
February 2015

Six leading ocean thinkers come together in a new video to discuss rapid, potentially irreversible shifts in coastal and ocean ecosystems. 


Hawai'i Case Study Team Meets in Oahu
December 2014

The Ocean Tipping Points Hawai'i case study team met in Oahu for a 5-day working group to make progress on our database assembly, our analysis plan of attack, and honing our message about the utility of our work products for coral reef management. 


Photo Credit: Piserio

2014 MEAM Issue
December 2014 - Januart 2015

A new article by Ocean Tipping Points principle investigator Carrie Kappel and co-principle investigator Ben Halpern was featured in the latest Marine Ecosystems and Management December issue and the team members were followed up by interview about the project from MEAM.


2014 Expert Management Advisory Group Meeting
October 21-22, 2014

Meeting of the minds--Ocean Tipping Points team members and Expert Management Advisory Group members convene on the Stanford campus to discuss project goals and outputs.


Our New Blog Series: Ecosystems on the Edge
December 12, 2014

Check out the second installment of our new Blog series hosted by the OpenChannels network. Ecosystems on the Edge Part 2: Measuring effective threshold-based environmental management


Photo Credit: Nick Hobgood

Avoiding Ecosystem Collapse Using Tipping Point Science
December 2, 2014

From coral reefs to prairie grasslands, some of the world’s most iconic habitats are susceptible to sudden collapse due to seemingly minor events. A classic example: the decimation of kelp forests when a decline of otter predation unleashes urchin population explosions. Three studies published in the Nov. 24 special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society—Biological Science hold the promise of helping resource managers predict, avoid, and reverse the tipping points that lead to degraded habitats, economic losses, and social upheaval.

Macrocystis
Photo Credit: UCSB Digital Collections

Initial Results Published
November 24, 2014

At the midpoint of our four-year project, we are pleased to present some of our initital findings in five scientific papers, two published last week in the journals Nature: Communications and Nature: Scientific Reports, and three appearing today in a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Reef fish
Photo Credit: joakant/Pixabay

2014 PICES Annual Meeting
October 16-24, 2014

Ocean Tipping Points team members Dr. Rebecca Martone and Dr. Jameal Samhouri co-convened a symposium at the 2014 PICES (North Pacific Marine Science Organization) annual meeting in Yeosu, South Korea, on October 21st along with colleagues on the session entitled, "Tipping points: defining reference points for ecological indicators of multiple stressors in coastal and marine ecosystems."

Kelp forest
Photo Credit: Katie Davis

2014 International Marine Conservation Congress Meeting
August 14-18, 2014

Ocean Tipping Points team member Adrian Stier presented at the 2014 International Marine Conservation Congress meeting in Glasgow, Scotland on applied ecological research with his talk entitled "Differences in Perception Not (Necessarily) Values Produce Conservation Conflict."


Photo Credit: Phil Levin

2014 American Fisheries Society Meeting
August 17-21, 2014

Ocean Tipping Points team member Mary Hunsicker co-organized and presented a symposium at the 2014 American Fisheries Society Meeting in Quebec, Canada on ecosystem thresholds and tipping points entitled "Integrating Ecosystem Threshold Responses into Living Marine and Aquatic Resource Management."


Photo Credit: James Watts

Communication Internship Opportunity
March 28, 2014

The Ocean Tipping Points project seeks a Science Communication and Social Media Intern for 
Spring Quarter 2014.


Photo Credit: Linsey Hesla

2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting
March 6, 2014

Ocean Tipping Points team member Ashley Erickson presented at the 2014 AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii about the importance of two-way communication between science and policy in her talk entitled "The Tide Flows Both Ways: Communicating Science to Policy and Policy to Science".


Photo Credit: Jim Maragos/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Coral Reef Thresholds for Ecosystem Management
February 13, 2014

In their blog post for EDFish, Ocean Tipping Points team members Rod Fujita and Kendra Karr explain how their research is helping to elucidate where tipping points in coral reef ecosystems occur and how maintaining adequate reef fish biomass could be a key to managing for resilient coral reef systems.


Photo Credit: James Watts

Tipping Points in Fisheries Management
February 3, 2014

Jim Estes, a member of the Ocean Tipping Points Project’s Science Working Group, recently co-authored an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about integrating the science of tipping points in fisheries management: “Integrating the invisible fabric of nature into fisheries management”.


Photo Credit: Phil Levin

NSERC Postdoctoral Opportunity in Social-Ecological Modeling of Forage Fish Systems
January 15, 2014

Exciting new NSERC postdoctoral position housed within the Hakai Network at Simon Fraser University, in collaboration with the Ocean Tipping Points Project


Photo Credit: OuterShores Expeditions

Project Featured on NOAA Fisheries' Website
September 3, 2013

An Early Warning System for Tipping Points in the Ocean

purple urchins
Photo Credit: Ron McPeak

Ocean Tipping Points Project Launch
October 30, 2012

New Study to Examine Ecological Tipping Points in Hopes of Preventing Them.


Photo Credit: UCSB Digital Collections