one can obtain good indications for theexistence of alternative attractors from field data, but theycan never be conclusive. There is always the possibilitythat discontinuities in time series or spatial patternsare due to discontinuities in some environmental factor.Alternatively, the system might simply have a thresholdresponse (Figure 2b).
While these different potential processes behind particular patterns are not all associated with alternative stable states, they are all associated with regime shifts (barring some very narrow definition of "regime shift").