Terrestrial ecosystems have been undergoing unprecedented climate and human-induced disturbances, which are likely to push these systems towards changes in their physiognomies, structure, and functioning. It has been hypothesized that these new configurations may be alternative regimes of systems comprising vegetation-climate-disturbance interactions. Thus, one way of explaining the dynamics of ecosystems in transition may be the theory of multi-stability and concepts such as resilience, hysteresis and tipping points. However, whether such multiple regimes indeed exist in climate-vegetation-disturbance systems and whether we can identify and quantify tipping points of such systems still remain largely unclear due to various reasons such as the role of heterogeneity and multi-scale processes in amplifying or dampening hysteresis and environmental change. This highlights the need to inter- multidisciplinary teams, which investigate such questions and help addressing management practices and preserving ecosystem services for future adaptation policies.