Anthropogenic activities are increasingly affecting ecosystems across the globe. Meanwhile,
empirical and theoretical evidence suggest that natural systems can exhibit abrupt collapses …

It is an old idea in ecology that environmental change can induce rapid transformations at
times impossible to reverse. Early manipulation experiments hinted that coastal communities …

Dynamical shifts between the extremes of stability and collapse are hallmarks of ecological
systems. These shifts are limited by and change with biodiversity, complexity, and the …

In the Anthropocene, intensifying ecological disturbances pose significant challenges to our
predictive capabilities for ecosystem responses. Macroecology—which focuses on emergent …

Synthesis The quickly expanding literature on early warning signals for critical transitions in
ecosystems suggests that critical slowing down is a key phenomenon to measure the …

All species have evolved in the presence of disturbance, and thus are in a sense matched to
the recurrence pattern of the perturbations. Consequently, disturbances within the typical …

Occasionally, surprisingly large shifts occur in ecosystems. Theory suggests that such shifts
can be attributed to alternative stable states. Verifying this diagnosis is important because it …

Theory suggests that gradual environmental change may erode the resilience of ecosystems
and increase their susceptibility to critical transitions. This notion has received a lot of …

A major concern for the world's ecosystems is the possibility of collapse, where landscapes
and the societies they support change abruptly. Accelerating stress levels, increasing …

A range of indicators have been proposed for identifying the elevated risk of critical
transitions in ecosystems. Most indicators are based on the idea that critical slowing down …