Structure-based identification of sensor species for anticipating critical transitions.

ABSTRACT: Ecological systems can undergo sudden, catastrophic changes known as critical transitions. Anticipating these critical transitions remains challenging in systems with many species because the associated early warning signals can be weakly present or even absent in some species, depending on the system dynamics. Therefore, our limited knowledge of ecological dynamics may suggest that it is hard to identify those species in the system that display early warning signals. Here, we show that, in mutualistic ecological systems, it is possible to identify species that early anticipate critical transitions by knowing only the system structure-that is, the network topology of plant-animal interactions. Specifically, we leverage the mathematical theory of structural observability of dynamical system

SUBMITTER: Aparicio A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8713809 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature