Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY

The elusive search for tipping points

Subjects

New evidence from over 4,600 studies calls into question the universal application of critical threshold values, or tipping points, along gradients of environmental stress. Identifying never-to-exceed environmental targets may prove elusive for environmental policy and management.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Little evidence for universal tipping points.

References

  1. Gladwell, M. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Little, Brown and Company, 2000).

  2. Barnosky, A. D. et al. Nature 486, 52–58 (2012).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ehrlich, P. R. & Ehrlich, A. H. Proc. R. Soc. B 280, 20122845 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Rockström, J. et al. Nature 461, 472–475 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Dudney, J., Hobbs, R. J., Heilmayr, R., Battles, J. J. & Suding, K. N. Trends Ecol. Evol. 33, 863–873 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Hillebrand, H. et al. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1256-9 (2020).

  7. Hallett, L. M. et al. Ecology 95, 1693–1700 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Berdugo, M. et al. Science 367, 787–790 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Benedetti-Cecchi, L., Tamburello, L., Maggi, E. & Bulleri, F. Curr. Biol. 25, 1867–1872 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Millar, C. I. & Stephenson, N. L. Science 349, 823–826 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Monger, C. et al. Front. Ecol. Environ. 13, 13–19 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Turner, M. G. et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 375, 20190105 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katharine N. Suding.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dudney, J., Suding, K.N. The elusive search for tipping points. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 1449–1450 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1273-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1273-8

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing