Publications

Shackleton R.T., R. Biggs, D.M Richardson, B.M.H., Larson. 2018. Social-ecological drivers and impacts of invasion-related regime shifts: consequences for ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Environmental Science & Policy 89: 300-314.

There are growing concerns that increasing global environmental pressures could lead to the exceedance of critical ecological thresholds that could trigger long-lasting regime shifts that will affect the structure and function of ecosystems and the broader social-ecological systems in which they are embedded. Biological invasions are a major driver of global change, and a number of invasive species alter key ecological feedbac...

Pereira L. E. Bennett, R. Biggs, G.D., Peterson, T., McPhearson, A., Norström, P. Olsson, R. Preiser, C. Raudsepp-Hearne, J. Vervoort. 2018. Seeds of the future in the present: Exploring pathways for navigating towards “Good” Anthropocenes. Chapter 16 (p327-350) in: Urban Planet: Knowledge Towards Sustainable Cities. Elmqvist T., X. Bai, N. Frantzeskaki, C. Griffith, D. Maddox, T. McPhearson, S. Parnell, P. Romero-Lankao, D. Simon, M. Watkins (eds). Cambridge University Press.

The rapid urbanization associated with the Anthropocene provides an imperative for humans to think diff erently about the future. The “seeds” approach describes how niche experiments can, over time, coalesce to shift the dominant regime onto a more sustainable trajectory. Urban transformations are complex phenomena; the seeds approach is a tool that can help us understand how transformations occur and how to nudge them towards...

Biggs, R., Kizito, F., Adjonou, K., Ahmed, M. T., Blanchard, R., Coetzer, K., Handa, C. O., Dickens, C., Hamann, M., O'Farrell, P., Kellner, K., Reyers, B., Matose, F., Omar, K., Sonkoue, J-F., Terer, T, Vanhove, M., Sitas, N., Abrahams, B., Lazarova, T., and Pereira, L. Current and future interactions between nature and society. Chapter 5 (p413-479) in: The IPBES regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa. Archer, E. Dziba, L., Mulongoy, K. J., Maoela, M. A., and Walters, M. (eds.). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services, Bonn, Germany. Available at https://www.ipbes.net/system/tdf/ipbes_6_inf_3_rev.1_final.pdf?file=1&type=node&id=16516

IPBES. 2018. Summary for policymakers of the regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. E. Archer, L. E. Dziba, K. J. Mulongoy, M. A. Maoela, M. Walters, R. Biggs, M-C. Cormier-Salem, F. DeClerck, M. C. Diaw, A. E. Dunham, P. Failler, C. Gordon, K. A. Harhash, R. Kasisi, F. Kizito, W. D. Nyingi, N. Oguge, B. Osman-Elasha, L. C. Stringer, L. Tito de Morais, A. Assogbadjo, B. N. Egoh, M. W. Halmy, K. Heubach, A. Mensah, L. Pereira and N. Sitas (eds.). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. 49 pages.

This Report provides a critical assessment of the full range of issues facing decision-makers, including the importance, status, trends and threats to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, as well as policy and management response options. Establishing the underlying causes of the loss of biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people provides policymakers with the information needed to develop appropriate re...

Reyers, B., Folke, C., Moore, M-L., R. Biggs, Galaz. V. 2018. Social-Ecological Systems Insights for Navigating the Dynamics of the Anthropocene. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2018. 43:267–89. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-110615-085349

Social-ecological systems (SES) research offers new theory and evidence to transform sustainable development to better contend with the challenges of the Anthropocene. Four insights from contemporary SES literature on (a) intertwined SES, (b) cross-scale dynamics, (c) systemic tipping points, and (d) transformational change are explored. Based on these insights, shifts in sustainable development practice are suggested to recog...

Van der Merwe, S. E., R. Biggs, and R. Preiser. 2018. A framework for conceptualizing and assessing the resilience of essential services produced by socio-technical systems. Ecology and Society 23(2):12.https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09623-230212

Essential services such as electricity are critical to human well-being and the functioning of modern society. These services are produced by complex adaptive socio-technical systems and emerge from the interplay of technical infrastructure with people and governing institutions. Ongoing global changes such as urbanization and increasing prevalence of extreme weather events are generating much interest in strategies for buildi...

Pereira, L. M., T. Hichert, M. Hamann, R. Preiser, and R. Biggs. 2018. Using futures methods to create transformative spaces: visions of a good Anthropocene in southern Africa. Ecology and Society 23(1):19.https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09907-230119

 The unique challenges posed by the Anthropocene require creative ways of engaging with the future and bringing about transformative change. Envisioning positive futures is a first step in creating a shared understanding and commitment that enables radical transformations toward sustainability in a world defined by complexity, diversity, and uncertainty. However, to create a transformative space in which truly unknowable futur...

Luvuno, L.; Biggs, R.; Stevens, N.; Esler, K. 2018. Woody Encroachment as a Social-Ecological Regime Shift. Sustainability. 2018; 10(7):2221.

African savannas are increasingly affected by woody encroachment, an increase in the density of woody plants. Woody encroachment often occurs unexpectedly, is difficult to reverse, and has significant economic, cultural and ecological implications. The process of woody encroachment represents a so-called regime shift that results from feedback loops that link vegetation and variables such as fire, grazing and water availabilit...

Preiser, R., Pereira, L., M., R. Biggs. 2017. Navigating alternative framings of human-environment interactions: Variations on the theme of ‘Finding Nemo’. Anthropocene, available online 2 November 2017, DOI: 10.1016/j.ancene.2017.10.003

Wide agreement exists that the “Anthropocene” demands new forms of engagement and responses to achieve sustainability, but different fields suggest quite different approaches. In this communication, we set out four perspectives that we argue have fundamentally different framings of the “problem” of the Anthropocene, and consequently point to very different responses to achieving sustainability. These four fields include: the e...

Hamann, M., R. Biggs, B. Reyers. 2016. An exploration of human well-being bundles as identifiers of ecosystem service use patterns. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163476.

We take a social-ecological systems perspective to investigate the linkages between ecosystem services and human well-being in South Africa. A recent paper identified different types of social-ecological systems in the country, based on distinct bundles of ecosystem service use. These system types were found to represent increasingly weak direct feedbacks between nature and people, from rural “green-loop” communities to urban ...