A new publication by Watershed Ecosystems Project researchers, CORRIE GREAVES, DR. ADAM WEI and DR. LAEL PARROTT
Greaves, C., Wei, X. & Parrott, L. Setting the Limit for Cumulative Effects: a Regional Safe Operating Space for Maintaining Ecological Resilience. Environmental Management. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-025-02122-4
Is our collective footprint undermining the ability of ecosystems to adapt, respond, and thrive?
In a new paper, “Setting the Limit for Cumulative Effects: a Regional Safe Operating Space for Maintaining Ecological Resilience”, published in a special edition of Environmental Management, Watershed Ecosystems Project researchers address this question by proposing a model for measuring cumulative effects relative to a safe operating space (SOS) grounded in ecological resilience. Corrie Greaves, Dr. Adam Wei, and Dr. Lael Parrott outline practical considerations for implementing this model in cumulative effects assessments based on six attributes of a resilient ecosystem: diversity, connectivity, modularity, memory, openness, and feedbacks.
A regional safe operating space (SOS) for maintaining a resilient ecosystem. Figure inspired by the resilience pillar artwork developed by the Tahoe-Central Sierra Initiative (2020). Figured produced in Biorender.
The regional SOS for each attribute of a resilient ecosystem is delineated by an upper and lower boundary (hashed lines). When the magnitude of cumulative effects pushes ecosystems beyond the boundaries of the regional SOS, society can no longer be confident that further human impacts will not erode the ability of the system to adapt and transform to further disturbance, thereby risking the ecosystem structures, functions, and processes on which society depend. When a system is within its regional SOS for resilience, it may still be able to accommodate and recover from additional human disturbances.
A regional SOS may serve as a powerful tool to understand how our collective footprint may be undermining the ability of ecosystems to adapt and respond to future disturbances. This research proposes a regional SOS for resilience model that could serve as a stepping-stone in a much larger agenda that aims to improve the accessibility of ecological resilience in this important sphere.
