Prospects for acoustically monitoring ecosystem tipping points

Abstract

Many ecosystems can undergo important qualitative changes, including sudden transitions to alternative stable states, in response to perturbations or increments in conditions. Such 'tipping points' are often preceded by declines in aspects of ecosystem resilience, namely the capacity to recover from perturbations, that leave various spatial and temporal signatures. These so-called 'early warning signals' have been used to anticipate transitions in diverse real systems, but many of the high-throughput, autonomous monitoring technologies that are transforming ecology have yet to be fully leveraged to this end. Acoustic monitoring in particular is a powerful tool for quantifying biodiversity, tracking ecosystem health, and facilitating conservation. By deploying acoustic recorders in diverse environments, researchers have gained insights from the calls and behaviour of individual species to higher-level soundscape features that describe habitat quality and even predict species occurrence. Here, we draw on theory and practice to advocate for using acoustics to probe ecosystem resilience and identify emerging and established early warning signals of tipping points. With a focus on pragmatic considerations, we emphasise that despite limits to tipping point theory and the current scale and transferability of data, acoustics could be instrumental in understanding resilience and tipping potential across distinct ecosystems and scales.