Some environmental patterns appear to be local - but upon closer inspection - then have a wider and larger spill-over and are actually driven by global actors. Based on a recent study by Veit et al. (2021) here a seabird example is presented - the Elegant Tern - and how its conservation management effects spill into the wider Pacific and the Atlantic, including western Europe (Spain and France). It turned global. Most individuals of this tern species breed on just one tiny island in southern California - Isla Raza. However, individual bird vagrants of Elegant Terns are found by bird watchers and researchers in areas far away from this source but directly affected by rodent/predator-removal and other factors - most of them man-made and cultural.

The concept of telecoupling (=widely connected sources, sinks and spill-overs) can be applied here and it helps in the Anthropocene to understand how global economies, their cultures/attitudes and actions all affect oceans, species, prey and climate alike - including some of the associated El Nino patterns.  

References (selection)

Liu J., Y. Dou, M. Batistella, E.Challies, T.Conno, C.Friis, J.DA. Millington, E. Parish, C. L Romulo, R.F.Bicudo Silva, H. Triezenberg, H.Yang, Z.Zhao, K. S. Zimmerer, F. Huettmann, M.L. Treglia, Z. Basher, M.G. Chung, A.Herzberger, A.Lenschow, A. Mechiche-Alami, J. Newig, J.Roch  and J. Sun (2018) Spillover systems in a telecoupled Anthropocene: typology, methods, and governance for global sustainability. Environmental Sustainability 33:58-69 doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.04.009

Raya Rey A. and F. Huettmann (2019) Telecoupling analysis of the Patagonian Shelf: a new approach to study global seabird-fisheries interactions to achieve sustainability. Journal for Nature Conservation 3: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S1617138118301067

Raya Rey, A. N., J. C. Pizarro, C. B. Anderson, and F. Huettmann. (2017) Even at the uttermost ends of the Earth: how seabirds telecouple the Beagle Channel with regional and global processes that affect environmental conservation and social-ecological sustainability. Ecology and Society 22 (4):31. [online] URL: https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss4/art31/

Veit, R. R., E. Velarde, M.H. Horn, and L.L. Manne (2021) Population growth and long-distance vagrancy leads to colonization of Europe by elegant terns Thalasseus elegans. Front. Ecol. Evol, 9: 824.

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