Forest resilience, tipping points and global change processes

SPECIAL FEATURE FOREST RESILIENCE, TIPPING POINTS AND GLOBAL CHANGE PROCESSES Long-term disturbance dynamics and resilience of tropical peat swamp forests

Lydia E. S. Cole*, Shonil A. Bhagwat and Katherine J. Willis Oxford Long-term Ecology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK; Biodiversity Institute, Oxford Martin School, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK; Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, ...

Coral Reef Resilience, Tipping Points and the Strength of Herbivory

Coral reefs increasingly are undergoing transitions from coral to macroalgal dominance. Although the functional roles of reef herbivores in controlling algae are becoming better understood, identifying possible tipping points in the herbivory-macroalgae relationships has remained a challenge. Assessment of where any coral reef ecosystem lies in relation to the coral-to-macroalgae tipping point ...

Global change tipping points: above- and below-ground biotic interactions in a low diversity ecosystem.

Low diversity ecosystems are expected to be more vulnerable to global changes although they have received less attention than high diversity ecosystems. Addressing the present state of the Antarctic Dry Valley region by focusing on the potential global changes that may alter the coupling of above- and below-ground species and ecosystem processes is a realistic and critical need that has value b...

Tipping Points and Ambiguity in the Economics of Climate Change

We model optimal policy when the probability of a tipping point, the welfare change due to a tipping point, and knowledge about a tipping point's trigger all depend on the policy path. Analytic results demonstrate how optimal policy depends on the ability to affect both the probability of a tipping point and also welfare in a post-threshold world. Simulations with a numerical climate-economy mo...

Tipping Points, Abrupt Opinion Changes, and Punctuated Policy Change