Academic literature on the topic 'Ecosystem Transitions'

The Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) is a forage fish species that is increasing inimportance for Southern Ocean fisheries and world aquaculture production. However, thisspecies also has a fundamental role in the Scotia Sea food-web and is the main conservationtarget for the region’s natural resource management organization - the Commission for theConservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The aim of this thesis istherefore to examine the inter-relationship between CCAMLR, krill fishery and the Scotia Seaecosystem in the Southern Ocean, as well as broader socio-economical and ecological settingssince 1970s and measure system resilience. The premise here is that the current krill-regime inthe Scotia Sea must be understood as a complex adaptive system (CAS) of social, ecologicaland economical attributes that operates over different temporal and spatial scales. Thus, byapplying the framework of a social-ecological system (SES), together with the adaptive cycleheuristic model, both quantitative and qualitative data is revised and integrated. Two alternatemanagement states are identified within the krill-regime; an early krill fishery state (1972 –1991), and an ecosystem based governance state (1991 - 2010). Resilience is however fadingin the Scotia Sea due to a combination of cross-scale attributes, in a range from low krilldensity (n/m¯²), increased competition for marine resources between predators and krillfishery, to elevated demand and global market prices of non-food commodities by theaquaculture sector in Asia, thus, moving the Scotia Sea towards an unknown fish-regime.Although such future regime is still retained by the region’s slow changing physical variablessuch as sea ice and seasonality, as well as the adaptive management capacity of CCAMLR,the sudden appearance of an undesirable regime in the Scotia Sea would probably havecomprehensive socio-ecological consequences if reached.

The electrification of the transportation sector plays an important role in the sustainability transition as successful electric vehicle (EV) integration allows for the reduction of CO2 emissions. Moreover, bidirectional capabilities of the EVs (vehicle-to-grid) further facilitate this transition by supporting the electricity grid while lowering the cost of ownership of EVs when revenues from grid-supporting services are split between stakeholders. Due to sustainability challenges facing several domains, fundamental transformation processes are needed to transition away from our current global energy system. However, with the strong inertia of the current system together with the sheer complexity and vexed interests during transitions, neither private markets nor government agencies seem likely to spur this transition on their own. Transitions are thus political processes, in which standards can play an important role since they point to the direction of the transition. This thesis investigates the role of standardization in sustainability transitions. The aim was to improve the understanding of the diverse stakeholder attitudes towards the standardization process of the communication protocol between the vehicle and its charging equipment. While exploring this topic, the thesis further aimed to investigate the power relations that govern the interactions and coordination efforts between the diverse stakeholders involved in the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) standardization processes. To achieve this, a qualitative study was conducted where two transcripts from the California Energy Commission, adding up to a total of 667 pages, were coded in a mixed inductive-deductive manner. In addition, as a complement, 13 expert interviews were conducted. The results showed that power was expressed by actors on (and between) all levels in the system. Mutual dependency was the most frequently expressed power relation among the actors. The mutual dependency was assumed to be widely present due to the interdependent nature between the components in the V2G system. The automotive manufacturers were observed to have a strong position in the vehicle-to-grid ecosystem and it was noted that other actors conformed with their political and/or economic goals. Another finding related to power was the sense of powerlessness and frustration expressed by actors on all levels, likely enabling the status quo to prevail. There was also clear frustration towards policymakers concerning the lack of policy direction and actors expressed the need for market signaling. The policymakers seemed to adhere to both disruptive innovations and the existing regime, causing uncertainty in policy decisions. The empirics also showed that the standardization discussions have little focus on competition between standards at this point of the transition. The debate seemed to rather be shaped by the conflict between advocates and opponents of standardization, where the opponents argued against standardization due to fear of prematurely mandating a single standard. Advocates dominated over opponents at this point of the transition and the communication standard, ISO 15118 seemed to have significant industry support. Automotive manufacturers were found to be the most vocal stakeholder group against standardization. Furthermore, the results highlighted the functions and features of standards commonly mentioned in the V2G standardization discussions, where compatibility, market signaling, and future proof features belonged to the most frequently mentioned.<br>Elektrifieringen av transportsektorn spelar en central roll för omställningen till ett hållbart energisystem eftersom elbilar bidrar till minskade utsläpp av koldioxid. Bidirektionella laddningsmöjligheter (V2G) kan möjliggöra omställningen ytterligare genom att stötta svaga elnät på lokal nivå samtidigt som funktionen kan minska kostnaderna för att äga en elbil. Fundamentala omställningar krävs för att lösa de hållbarhetsutmaningar som flera industrier står inför men på grund av komplexiteten i dessa system kan varken privat eller offentlig sektor driva denna förändring på egen hand. Omställningsprocessen är en politisk process där standardisering kan spela en viktig roll eftersom de kan indikera vilken riktning omställningen rör sig mot. Den här uppsatsen undersöker därför standardiseringens roll i hållbarhetsomställningar. Syftet var att öka förståelsen av olika aktörers ståndpunkter i standardiseringsprocessen av kommunikationen mellan en elbil och dess laddstation. För att undersöka detta ämne granskades även maktförhållanden som genomsyrar en standardiseringsprocess. Detta gjordes genom kvalitativ kodning av två transkriberade diskussioner om standardisering från California Energy Commission vilka totalt uppgick till 667 sidor. Utöver detta hölls 13 intervjuer som komplement. Resultatet visade att makt utövades av aktörer på samtliga nivåer i systemet. Ett ömsesidigt beroende kunde identifieras mellan aktörerna. Detta antogs vara framträdande på grund av de beroendeförhållanden som uppstår sig då samtliga aktörer krävs för att ett V2G-system ska fungera. Vidare observerades att maktutövande som förstärker och reproducerar existerande strukturer och institutioner uttrycktes av många aktörer i V2G-ekosystemet. En annan observation var att biltillverkare verkar ha en stark position i V2G-ekosystemet och det noterades att andra aktörer anpassade sig efter deras politiska och/eller ekonomiska mål. Ett ytterligare resultat var att det fanns en känsla av maktlöshet och frustration på alla nivåer i systemet vilket bidrog till upplevelsen av status quo. Det fanns en tydlig frustration speciellt mot beslutsfattare vilken grundade sig i bristen på tydliga riktlinjer. Beslutsfattare verkade anpassa sig såväl mot disruptiv innovation som till den existerande regimen vilket orsakade passivitet och osäkerhet vid beslutsfattande. Eftersom ramverket Multi-Level Power-in-Transition som användes för analysen inte tar hänsyn till att beslutsfattare kan svara både mot dominanta och mer radikala makrotrender, modifierades ramverket något innan det appliceras på empirin. Vidare visade analysen att det inte pågår någon konkurrens mellan standarder i denna fas av omställningen, däremot identifierades en konflikt mellan förespråkare och motståndare till standardisering där motståndarna var oroliga över att det var för tidigt att ge mandat åt en enskild standard. Förespråkare dominerade över motståndare i denna fas av omställningen och kommunikationstandarden ISO 15118 verkade ha betydande stöd från industrin. Biltillverkare befanns vara de aktörer som till största grad motsatte sig standardisering. Resultaten gav ytterligare en inblick i de egenskaper hos standarder som vanligtvis nämndes i diskussioner om kommunikationsstandarder. Några av de egenskaper som regelbundet belystes som viktiga var kompatibilitet och att den bör vara framtidssäker. En ytterligare viktig funktion med standardisering ansågs vara att ge tydliga signaler till marknaden.

Bioeconomy strategies in high income societies focus at replacing finite, fossil resources by renewable, biological resources to reconcile macro-economic concerns with climate constraints. However, the current bioeconomy is associated with critical levels of environmental degradation. As a potential increase in biological resource use may further threaten the capacity of ecosystems to fulfil human needs, it remains unclear whether bioeconomy transitions in high income countries are sustainable. In order to fill a gap in bioeconomy sustainability assessments, we apply an ontological lens of coupled social-ecological systems to explore critical mechanisms in relation to bioeconomy activities in the global resource system. This contributes to a social-ecological systems (SES)-based understanding of sustainability from a high income country perspective: the capacity of humans to satisfy their needs with strategies that reduce current levels of pressures and impacts on ecosystems. Building on this notion of agency, we develop a framework prototype that captures the systemic relation between individual human needs and collective social outcomes on the one hand (microlevel) and social-ecological impacts in the global resource system on the other hand (macro-level). The BIO-SES framework emphasizes the role of responsible consumption (for physical health), responsible production (to reduce stressors on the environment), and the role of autonomy and selforganisation (to protect the reproduction capacity of social-ecological systems). In particular, the BIO-SES framework can support (1) individual and collective agency in high income country contexts to reduce global resource use and related ecosystem impacts with a bioeconomy strategy, (2) aligning social outcomes, monitoring efforts and governance structures with place-based efforts to achieve the SDGs, as well as (3), advancing the evidence base and social-ecological theory on responsible bioeconomy transitions in the limited biosphere.