Reassessing the alternative ecosystem states proposition in the African savanna-forest domain
© 2024 The Author(s). New Phytologist © 2024 New Phytologist Foundation.
| Publié dans: | The New phytologist. - 1979. - 243(2024), 5 vom: 05. Sept., Seite 1660-1669 |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Autres auteurs: | , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article en ligne |
| Langue: | English |
| Publié: |
2024
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| Accès à la collection: | The New phytologist |
| Sujets: | Journal Article Review bistability climate determinism forecasting forest herbivory savanna uncertainty wildfire |
| Résumé: | © 2024 The Author(s). New Phytologist © 2024 New Phytologist Foundation. Ecologists are being challenged to predict how ecosystems will respond to climate changes. According to the Multi-Colored World (MCW) hypothesis, climate impacts may not manifest because consumers such as fire and herbivory can override the influence of climate on ecosystem state. One MCW interpretation is that climate determinism fails because alternative ecosystem states (AES) are possible at some locations in climate space. We evaluated theoretical and empirical evidence for the proposition that forest and savanna are AES in Africa. We found that maps which infer where AES zones are located were contradictory. Moreover, data from longitudinal and experimental studies provide inconclusive evidence for AES. That is, although the forest-savanna AES proposition is theoretically sound, the existing evidence is not yet convincing. We conclude by making the case that the AES proposition has such fundamental consequences for designing management actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the savanna-forest domain that it needs a more robust evidence base before it is used to prescribe management actions |
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| Description: | Date Completed 01.08.2024 Date Revised 01.08.2024 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1469-8137 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/nph.19911 |