StateShifts – Predicting changes in stable states of energetic trophic networks under climate change
Global environmental changes are driving biodiversity loss at unprecedented rates. By providing ecosystem services, biodiversity contributes up to 50% of the GNP internationally every year. Simply put, the loss of biodiversity constitutes a global threat to both human welfare and global stability. This realization has led to a growing interest in forecasting biological responses from local to global scales and from genes to ecosystems. Yet, our ability to predict the long-term consequences of global environmental changes on biodiversity and the associated ecosystem services remains severely limited.
StateShift propose a novel approach to forecasting changes in biodiversity that overcomes some of the limitations of current approaches: modelling stable states and shifts in the architecture of food webs.
Carla Pinto da Cruz, Carlos Correia Ramos