Exploiting delayed transitions to sustain semiarid ecosystems after catastrophic shifts.

ABSTRACT: Semiarid ecosystems (including arid, semiarid and dry-subhumid ecosystems) span more than 40% of extant habitats and contain a similar percentage of the human population. Theoretical models and palaeoclimatic data predict a grim future, with rapid shifts towards a desert state, with accelerated diversity losses and ecological collapses. These shifts are a consequence of the special nonlinearities resulting from ecological facilitation. Here, we investigate a simple model of semiarid ecosystems identifying the so-called ghost, which appears after a catastrophic transition from a vegetated to a desert state once a critical rate of soil degradation is overcome. The ghost involves a slowdown of transients towards the desert state, making the ecosystem seem stable even though vegetation extinct

SUBMITTER: Vidiella B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6030637 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature