Can Lyapunov exponent predict critical transitions in biological systems?

Transitions from one dynamical regime to another one are observed in many complex systems, especially biological ones. It is possible that even a slight perturbation can cause such a transition. It is clear that this can happen to an object when it is close to a tipping point. There is a lot of interest in finding ways to recognize that a tipping point (in which a bifurcation occurs) is near. There is a possibility that in complex systems, a phenomenon known as critical slowing down may be used to detect the vicinity of a tipping point. In this paper, we propose Lyapunov exponents as an indicator of critical slowing down..