Publication Date:
2012-06-09
Description:
Localized ecological systems are known to shift abruptly and irreversibly from one state to another when they are forced across critical thresholds. Here we review evidence that the global ecosystem as a whole can react in the same way and is approaching a planetary-scale critical transition as a result of human influence. The plausibility of a planetary-scale 'tipping point' highlights the need to improve biological forecasting by detecting early warning signs of critical transitions on global as well as local scales, and by detecting feedbacks that promote such transitions. It is also necessary to address root causes of how humans are forcing biological changes.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Barnosky, Anthony D -- Hadly, Elizabeth A -- Bascompte, Jordi -- Berlow, Eric L -- Brown, James H -- Fortelius, Mikael -- Getz, Wayne M -- Harte, John -- Hastings, Alan -- Marquet, Pablo A -- Martinez, Neo D -- Mooers, Arne -- Roopnarine, Peter -- Vermeij, Geerat -- Williams, John W -- Gillespie, Rosemary -- Kitzes, Justin -- Marshall, Charles -- Matzke, Nicholas -- Mindell, David P -- Revilla, Eloy -- Smith, Adam B -- R01 GM069801/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2012 Jun 6;486(7401):52-8. doi: 10.1038/nature11018.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. barnosky@berkeley.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22678279" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Climate Change/*statistics & numerical data
;
*Earth (Planet)
;
*Ecosystem
;
Environmental Monitoring
;
Forecasting
;
Human Activities
;
Humans
;
*Models, Theoretical
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
