Tipping points triggering extinctions in ecological networks

• Grant number: 17/05521-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: February 02, 2018
• End date: October 01, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Classical Areas of Phenomenology and Applications
• Principal Investigator: Iberê Luiz Caldas
• Grantee: Everton Santos Medeiros
• Supervisor: Ulrike Feudel
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Carl von Ossietzky University, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/26598-0 - Fractal Boundaries between chaos and periodicity in the parameters space., BP.PD

Abstract

The rate at which Earth's ecosystems lose biodiversity through extinctions is increasing due to human activity. Generally, the disappearance of a species in a ecosystem occur gradually, offering ways to revert extinctions. However, the existence of oscillating states in ecosystems, mainly due to external forcing, may lead to whole different scenario. Specifically, we propose that the processes that lead to unavoidable extinctions is very localized and might be triggered in tipping points, and the smoothness observed in the disappearance of a species is due to the transient dynamics associated to the tipping point. From this point of view, the ways to prevent extinction processes must be applied earlier, and the methods to state a species as threatened with extinction must be reconsidered. In order to verify that, during an academic visit to Prof. Dr. Ulrike Feudel, we address triggering processes in ecological networks using the framework of bifurcations theory. In our approach, a system bifurcation destroys a stable dynamical representation of a species, triggering dynamical transients that correspond to their gradual disappearance. More specifically, we are going to induce bifurcations in the network nodes to explore the appearance and the effects of transient dynamics in a global network scale. Additionally, to investigate the node's local stability, we are going to apply tools, such as critical slowing down, known to identify the approaching to tipping points in low-dimensional systems. (AU)

Scientific publications

(5)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MEDEIROS, EVERTON S.; MEDRANO-T, RENE O.; CALDAS, IBERE L.; FEUDEL, ULRIKE. Boundaries of synchronization in oscillator networks. Physical Review E, v. 98, n. 3, SEP 4 2018. (11/19296-1, 17/05521-0, 13/26598-0, 15/50122-0)

MEDEIROS, EVERTON S.; MEDRANO-T, RENE O.; CALDAS, THERE L.; TEL, TAMAS; FEUDEL, ULRIKE. State-dependent vulnerability of synchronization. Physical Review E, v. 100, n. 5, NOV 4 2019. (18/03211-6, 17/05521-0, 13/26598-0, 15/50122-0)

MEDEIROS, EVERTON S.; MEDRANO-T, RENE O.; CALDAS, IBERE L.; FEUDEL, ULRIKE. The impact of chaotic saddles on the synchronization of complex networks of discrete-time units. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-COMPLEXITY, v. 2, n. 3, SEP 2021. (15/50122-0, 17/05521-0, 13/26598-0, 18/03211-6)

MEDEIROS, EVERTON S.; MEDRANO-T, RENE O.; CALDAS, IBERE L.; FEUDEL, ULRIKE. Boundaries of synchronization in oscillator networks. PHYSICAL REVIEW E, v. 98, n. 3, p. 5-pg., 2018-09-04. (11/19296-1, 13/26598-0, 15/50122-0, 17/05521-0)

MEDEIROS, EVERTON S.; MEDRANO-T, RENE O.; CALDAS, THERE L.; TEL, TAMAS; FEUDEL, ULRIKE. State-dependent vulnerability of synchronization. PHYSICAL REVIEW E, v. 100, n. 5, p. 7-pg., 2019-11-04. (15/50122-0, 13/26598-0, 18/03211-6, 17/05521-0)