Ecological thresholds: a survey

The existence of ecological discontinuities and thresholds has been recogni sed by ecological economics as a key feature to take into account in the st udy of environment-economy interactions. This paper reviews some theoretica l developments and empirical studies dealing with ecological phenomena invo lving non-linear dynamics. The literature about this issue reveals that the re is abundant evidence of discontinuities and threshold effects: as the co nsequence of human perturbations on ecological systems. However, due to the complexities involved, the predictive capacity of ecology is limited and l arge uncertainties still remain. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.