Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michael W. Macy, Manqing Ma, Daniel R. Tabin, Jianxi Gao, Boleslaw K. Szymanski
Summary: Research has shown increasing partisan division and extremist positions are more pronounced among political elites than voters, and attention is now turning towards ways to attenuate this polarization. A general model of opinion change was used to study how self-reinforcing dynamics may lead to irreversible political polarization due to tipping points. Computational experiments manipulating agents' tolerance for disagreement and strength of party identification revealed difficult-to-predict transitions, emphasizing the importance of identifying tipping points and the effectiveness of countermeasures in future empirical research.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Review
Neurosciences
Mikael Simons, Johannes Levin, Martin Dichgans
Summary: This paper emphasizes the critical factors in the development of AD, proposing the concepts of resilience and resistance, and exploring the important roles of glial, immune, and vascular systems in the progression of AD.
Article
Mathematics, Applied
Eros M. M. Sunny, Janaki Balakrishnan, Jurgen Kurths
Summary: Increased greenhouse gas levels, especially carbon dioxide, are causing a significant rise in global temperature. Recent years have seen more noticeable global climate changes. There is a concern that continued increase in these gases may result in an irreversible transition of the Earth's climate system. A conceptual model is proposed to predict the tipping point.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Christoph Heinze, Thorsten Blenckner, Helena Martins, Dagmara Rusiecka, Ralf Doscher, Marion Gehlen, Nicolas Gruber, Elisabeth Holland, Oystein Hov, Fortunat Joos, John Brian Robin Matthews, Rolf Rodven, Simon Wilson
Summary: Anthropogenic climate change has profound effects on ocean environmental conditions, impacting marine ecosystems in ways that may be difficult to reverse. Identifying, monitoring, and preventing these changes, including tipping points, is an ongoing research effort that requires feasible mitigation strategies based on research. Addressing high-probability high-impact ocean tipping points in combination with gradual changes is crucial to prevent compounding negative impacts on society and the Earth system.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Maira Beatriz Teixeira da Costa, Carlos Alberto Silva, Eben North Broadbent, Rodrigo Vieira Leite, Midhun Mohan, Veraldo Liesenberg, Jaz Stoddart, Cibele Hummel do Amaral, Danilo Roberti Alves de Almeida, Anne Laura da Silva, Lucas Ruggeri Re Y. Goya, Victor Almeida Cordeiro, Franciel Rex, Andre Hirsch, Gustavo Eduardo Marcatti, Adrian Cardil, Bruno Araujo Furtado de Mendonca, Caio Hamamura, Ana Paula Dalla Corte, Eraldo Aparecido Trondoli Matricardi, Andrew T. Hudak, Angelica Maria Almeyda Zambrano, Ruben Valbuena, Bruno Lopes de Faria, Celso H. L. Silva Junior, Luiz Aragao, Manuel Eduardo Ferreira, Jingjing Liang, Samuel de Padua Chaves e Carvalho, Carine Klauberg
Summary: Tropical savanna ecosystems play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, but uncertainties remain in their ability to store and sequester carbon due to anthropogenic activities and climate change. This study assessed the potential of high-density UAV-lidar technology to estimate and map aboveground biomass density in the Brazilian Savanna. The most effective model included vegetation height and cover, showcasing the feasibility of UAV-lidar technology in Cerrado ecosystems.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yuya Karita, David T. Limmer, Oskar Hallatschek
Summary: This study demonstrates that small variations in the physical structure of microhabitats can drastically alter bacterial colonization success and resistance against invaders. Understanding the relationship between habitat structure and microbial self-organization is essential for microbial ecology experiments.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Mathematics, Applied
Michael A. S. Thorne, Eric Forgoston, Lora Billings, Anje-Margriet Neutel
Summary: This paper discusses two methods for handling community matrices from populations with different time scales, one by adjusting diagonal elements to consider self-regulation and the other by a scaling process to translate diagonal information. The relation between the leading eigenvalue of the matrix and the numerical diagonal parameter is exact in many ecologically relevant networks. Additionally, feedback determines whether the leading eigenvalue is real or complex valued in competitive systems, which is important for the ecological sensibility of the scaling procedure.
SIAM JOURNAL ON APPLIED DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS
(2021)
Review
Plant Sciences
Daniel M. Johnson, Gabriel Katul, Jean-Christophe Domec
Summary: Water circulation inside plants is crucial for their physiological functions, and failures in this circulation can lead to reduced transpiration and photosynthesis. By applying catastrophe theory, the study of plant hydraulics can help us better understand these phenomena and provide a framework for investigating transpiration, hydraulic function, and hydraulic safety-efficiency tradeoff.
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
T. Alberti, F. Florindo, P. De Michelis, G. Consolini
Summary: This study uses the theory of tipping points to detect and characterize geomagnetic reversals that occurred 25-36 million years ago. By conducting a high-resolution magnetostratigraphic study, the researchers identify a critical threshold below which a polarity reversal starts. They also build a simple stochastic model to describe the main features of polarity reversals. This novel approach could be helpful in developing a new framework for paleomagnetic studies.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Simron J. Singh, Tailin Huang, Nidhi Nagabhatla, Pia-Johanna Schweizer, Matthew Eckelman, Jasper Verschuur, Reshma Soman
Summary: This paper discusses the vulnerability of small islands from the perspective of socio-metabolic risk (SMR), highlighting the impact of material stocks and flows on SMR and proposing effective leverage points and adaptation strategies for building system resilience on small islands.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Sonia Kefi, Camille Saade, Eric L. Berlow, Juliano S. Cabral, Emanuel A. Fronhofer
Summary: Anthropogenic activities are increasingly impacting ecosystems worldwide, while natural systems may collapse abruptly in response to incremental stressors. The architecture of relationships within ecosystems, including species interactions and spatial structure, plays a crucial role in driving ecosystem responses to disturbances. Existing theoretical work on catastrophic shifts has focused on simpler systems, making it challenging to predict or manage such events in more complex real-world settings. Expanding investigations of catastrophic shifts to include complex, species-rich, and spatially structured systems could enhance our understanding of nature and improve our ability to anticipate the impacts of global change on ecological systems.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Thomas M. Bury, R. Sujith, Induja Pavithran, Marten Scheffer, Timothy M. Lenton, Madhur Anand, Chris T. Bauch
Summary: Many natural systems exhibit tipping points where sudden shifts to new states occur due to slowly changing environmental conditions. Researchers have developed a deep learning algorithm that can provide early warning signals for tipping points in systems it was not trained on, and predict certain characteristics of the new state.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Daniel J. Wieczynski, Holly V. Moeller, Jean P. Gibert
Summary: Mixotrophy has significant impacts on the dynamics and functioning of ecosystems, especially under warming conditions and increased nutrient levels. It produces unique food web modules with unusual ecological dynamics, leading to shifts in carbon flux and potential tipping points. These findings have important implications for understanding and managing ecosystem responses to global change.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Simon Dietz, James Rising, Thomas Stoerk, Gernot Wagner
Summary: Studies indicate that climate tipping points will increase the social cost of carbon by about 25%, with a 10% chance of doubling it. This suggests that climate tipping points will increase global economic risk and economic losses will be felt almost everywhere.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Xueqing Chen, Li Ma, Qian Du
Summary: The study proposes a one-stage anchor-free network based on searching four corner points of an object to fit objects with different shapes and orientations. By combining two strategies to detect corners, the results of the experiment demonstrate that the proposed method achieves superior performance to both anchor-based and anchor-free methods.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Dan Wu, Chi Xu, Shaopeng Wang, Lai Zhang, Susanne Kortsch
Summary: The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functions has been widely studied, but the variation in ecosystem functions across systems with similar species diversity has been rarely addressed. In this study, a food web model and empirical data were used to examine the relationships between species richness and variation in ecosystem functions. The results suggest that the variation in ecosystem functions is influenced by trophic interactions and the diversity of basal species, which has implications for biodiversity loss and ecosystem predictability.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Xiao Ma, Guang Zheng, Xu Chi, Long Yang, Qiang Geng, Jiarui Li, Yifan Qiao
Summary: A generalizable approach to mapping large-scale distributions of building heights using GEDI-derived relative height metrics, optical data, and radar data is proposed. The approach was applied to the Yangtze River Delta region in China, revealing spatial distribution patterns of building heights and the effect of urbanization on mean building heights.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Florian Grziwotz, Chun -Wei Chang, Vasilis Dakos, Egbert H. van Nes, Markus Schwarzlaender, Oliver Kamps, Martin Hessler, Isao T. Tokuda, Arndt Telschow, Chih-hao Hsieh
Summary: Critical transitions occur in various real-world systems and forecasting their occurrence is of great interest. This study introduces a powerful early warning signal called dynamical eigenvalue (DEV) that estimates the dominant eigenvalue of a system using bifurcation theory. The efficacy of the DEV approach is demonstrated in model systems with known bifurcation types and tested on various critical transitions in real-world systems.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Ana Sofia Cardoso, Sofiya Bryukhova, Francesco Renna, Luis Reino, Chi Xu, Zixiang Xiao, Ricardo Correia, Enrico Di Minin, Joana Ribeiro, Ana Sofia Vaz
Summary: E-commerce has become a thriving market for wildlife trafficking due to its accessibility and lack of supervision. Artificial intelligence, particularly deep learning, has emerged as a promising tool for analyzing and monitoring online content related to wildlife trade. We used freely available AI models to train and identify instances of pangolin trade, achieving a high success rate but leaving room for further improvements.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2023)
Review
Biology
Shuqing N. Teng, Jens-Christian Svenning, Chi Xu
Summary: The decline of large-sized animals and trees due to human activities has led to downsized ecosystems globally. However, restoration projects to promote ecological processes have received little attention in East Asia. In China, the disappearance of megafaunal species during the Late Pleistocene and the depletion of large-sized herbivores due to agricultural expansion have greatly affected ecosystems. The loss of megaherbivores has also compromised seed dispersal and resulted in the decline of large timber trees.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Biology
Lai Zhang, Cao Shen, Sheng-jia Xue, Chi Xu
PHYSICS OF LIFE REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Qinghua Zhao, Paul J. Van den Brink, Chi Xu, Shaopeng Wang, Adam T. Clark, Canan Karakoc, George Sugihara, Claire E. Widdicombe, Angus Atkinson, Shin-ichiro S. Matsuzaki, Ryuichiro Shinohara, Shuiqing He, Yingying. X. G. Wang, Frederik De Laender
Summary: Temperature and biodiversity changes can affect the ecological stability of natural food webs, but their joint effects are unclear. This study assessed these effects in 19 planktonic food webs and found that warmer temperatures were associated with lower stability, while biodiversity had inconsistent effects. The responses of stability were linked to the contributions from different trophic groups and the synchrony of species within the food web.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ronny Rotbarth, Egbert H. Van Nes, Marten Scheffer, Jane Uhd Jepsen, Ole Petter Laksforsmo Vindstad, Chi Xu, Milena Holmgren
Summary: Climate change is causing a northward shift of the boreal biome, but evidence of this shift is rare. Using satellite data, researchers found that tree cover change in the North American boreal biome has a strong north-south asymmetry, with no expansion at the northern boundary but a marked increase in the core range. However, tree cover declined at the southern boundary due to wildfires and logging, indicating a possible contraction of the biome that could lead to long-term carbon declines.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kang Zhang, Jiaguo Yan, Qiang He, Chi Xu, Johan van de Koppel, Bo Wang, Baoshan Cui, Quan-Xing Liu
Summary: Self-organized patterning resulting from biological and physical processes is widespread in nature. Previous studies have shown that biologically triggered self-organization can enhance ecosystem resilience, but the role of purely physical forms of self-organization remains unknown. In a Red Beach salt marsh in China, physically self-organized mud cracking was found to be an important facilitating process for the establishment of seepweeds. The cracks can promote plant survival and growth, enhance water infiltration, and contribute to the resilience of the salt marsh landscape.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Shruti Setty, Margot J. Cramwinckel, Egbert H. van Nes, Ingrid A. van de Leemput, Henk A. Dijkstra, Lucas J. Lourens, Marten Scheffer, Appy Sluijs
Summary: In this study, we analyze climate and carbon cycle indicators from marine sediments to investigate three major punctuated events during the late Paleocene-early Eocene warming. The results suggest that these events were triggered by climate-driven carbon cycle tipping points, and there is an intensifying coupling between the carbon cycle and climate during the long-term warming trend.
Letter
Ecology
J. Jelle Lever, Egbert H. H. Van Nes, Marten Scheffer, Jordi Bascompte
Summary: Theory suggests that long, negative feedback loops may destabilize food webs as complexity increases. However, the specific ways in which these feedbacks affect ecosystems' response to environmental change have received less attention. In this study, we describe five ways in which these feedbacks might lead to abrupt transitions and species losses. By combining models, we show that the likelihood of such transitions increases with the number of interacting species and the stability of network patterns. These findings raise questions about the stability of ecosystems under global environmental change.
Article
Ecology
Shenglai Yin, Ning Li, Wenjie Xu, Daniel J. Becker, Willem F. de Boer, Chi Xu, Taej Mundkur, Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones, Chunlin Li, Guan-zhu Han, Qiang Wu, Diann J. Prosser, Lijuan Cui, Zheng Y. X. Huang
Summary: Species functional traits can affect pathogen transmission, host status, and infection risk. Our study on European waterbird species found that traits like diet guild and dispersal ability influence host status and pathogen diversity. We also discovered a correlation between community-level risk of HPAI H5Nx occurrence and the community-weighted means of functional traits. Additionally, we found that functional diversity can reduce infection risk. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating trait-based ecology in understanding diversity-disease relationships and provide insights for HPAI prediction and prevention.
Article
Plant Sciences
Shan Rao, Xin-Yu Miao, Shu-Ya Fan, Yu-Hao Zhao, Chi Xu, Shao-Peng Li
Summary: Understanding community phylogenetic and functional structures in forest communities during succession is limited by the lack of long-term time-series data. Using a 68-year dataset, we found that community phylogenetic structure became more dispersed, while functional structure shifted from overdispersion to clustering over time. Species colonization increased phylogenetic diversity, while species with similar traits to residents were more likely to colonize, resulting in functional clustering. Our study highlights the importance of colonization and extinction in shaping community structures over long-term succession.
JOURNAL OF PLANT ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Guangjing Qian, Lai Zhang, Yuxin Chen, Chi Xu
Summary: We investigate the cascading effects of microplastic ingestion by fish on both upper and lower trophic levels in a well-studied aquatic ecosystem model, and find that increasing microplastics in planktivorous fish can cause population structure effects and abrupt declines in fish biomass and reproduction, leading to an ecosystem-level tipping point.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
