Regime shifts in nature and society are likely to occur more often and severe as humans increase their pressure on the world ecosystems. Yet it is largely unknown how these transitions will interact, whether the occurrence of one will increase the likelihood of another, or whether they might simply correlate on distant places. Here we explore three types of potential cascading effects of regime shifts i) two regime shifts can correlate if they are affected by the same driving forces; ii) a domino effect is triggered when the occurrence of one regime shift affects the drivers of other regime shifts; or iii) a hidden feedbacks rise when two regime shifts combined generate new (not previously identified) feedbacks by reinforcing or damping each other's drivers.
Results/Conclusions
Using 30 regime shifts described as networks, our results shows that 80% of the pair-wise combinations of regime shifts present at least one cascading effect, and 45% present plausible structural interdependence. Driver sharing is more common in aquatic systems while hidden feedbacks are more commonly found in terrestrial and Earth systems tipping points. The likelihood of cascading effects depends on cross-scale interactions but differs for each cascading effect type. Regime shifts should not be studied in isolation, methods and data collection should account for potential teleconnections.