Complex dynamical systems, ranging from ecosystems to financial markets and the climate, can have tipping points at which a sudden shift to a contrasting dynamical regime may occur. Although predicting such critical points before they are reached is extremely difficult, work in different scientific fields is now suggesting the existence of generic early-warning signals that may indicate for a wide class of systems if a critical threshold is approaching.

1. Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
2. Integrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Calle Américo Vespucio s/n, E-41092 Sevilla, Spain
3. Department of Economics, 1180 Observatory Drive,
4. Center for Limnology, 680 North Park Street, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
5. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Bundesstrae 55, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
6. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PO Box 601203, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
7. Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Department Environmental Sciences, Copernicus Institute, PO Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands
8. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA

Correspondence to: Marten Scheffer¹ Correspondence should be addressed to M.S. (Email: marten.scheffer@wur.nl).

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