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Unprecedented field studies of alternative stable states play out in the rocky intertidal zones of Swan's Island, Maine. Researchers have been returning to this rocky intertidal zone every spring and summer for nearly two decades! They survey a network of 60 experimental plots all around the island. The big question that brings them back year after year: Is an ecosystem like this a stable and permanent fixture, or, under harsh conditions, could it reach a tipping point? [Source: National Science Foundation]
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