How do ecosystems collapse? Our study shows evolution plays a role – and can delay a disaster

By Christopher Blake, PhD Student, Monash University
Michael J. McDonald, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution, Monash University

Dying coral reefs, rainforests transforming into savannas, grasslands turning into deserts – these are ecosystem “tipping points”, boundary lines we’re desperate not to cross.

In dynamic systems filled with life, these critical thresholds aren’t set in stone. Since organisms can evolve, the tipping points within these ecosystems might evolve too.

Most of us think of evolution as a glacial process, too slow to witness in a single lifetime. But evolution, especially in the microbial world, can happen very…

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