Social Tipping Points in Animal Societies

Overview

Journal Proc Biol Sci

Specialty Biology

Date 2018 Sep 21

PMID 30232162

Citations 17

Authors

Jonathan N Pruitt

Andrew Berdahl

Christina Riehl

Noa Pinter-Wollman

Holly V Moeller

Elizabeth G Pringle

Lucy M Aplin

Elva J H Robinson

Jacopo Grilli

Pamela Yeh

Van M Savage

Michael H Price

Joshua Garland

Ian C Gilby

Margaret C Crofoot

Grant N Doering

Elizabeth A Hobson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Animal social groups are complex systems that are likely to exhibit tipping points-which are defined as drastic shifts in the dynamics of systems that arise from small changes in environmental conditions-yet this concept has not been carefully applied to these systems. Here, we summarize the concepts behind tipping points and describe instances in which they are likely to occur in animal societies. We also offer ways in which the study of social tipping points can open up new lines of inquiry in behavioural ecology and generate novel questions, methods, and approaches in animal behaviour and other fields, including community and ecosystem ecology. While some behaviours of living systems are hard to predict, we argue that probing tipping points across animal societies and across tiers of biological organization-populations, communities, ecosystems-may help to reveal principles that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.

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