Globally, collapse of ecosystems—potentially irreversible change to ecosystem structure, composition and function—imperils biodiversity, human health and well‐being. We examine the current state and recent trajectories of 19 ecosystems, spanning 58° of latitude across 7.7 M km 2 , from Australia's coral reefs to terrestrial Antarctica. Pressures from global climate change and regional human impacts, occurring as chronic ‘press...

Aim The only factor in the fossil record that consistently buffers against extinction risk is large geographical range. We ask whether extant vertebrate species with the smallest geographical range for their body size have a higher extinction risk, and thus whether the lower bound of the modern range–body size relationship could serve as an effective conservation prioritization tool. Location Global in scope. Time period Moder...

In this study, we explore the mechanisms of synoptic rainfall variability using observations from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite. Although previously shown to have an important impact on North American monsoon rainfall, tropical cyclones are excluded from this analysis, in order to focus on more frequent synoptic disturbances within the region. A rotated empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of North...

Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 1008–1018 Abstract Invasive species are regarded as one of the top five drivers of the global extinction crisis. In response, extreme measures have been applied in an attempt to control or eradicate invasives, with little success overall. We tested the idea that state shifts to invasive dominance are symptomatic of losses in ecosystem resilience, due to the suppression of apex predators. This concept...

There is growing recognition of the important roles played by predators in regulating ecosystems and sustaining biodiversity. Much attention has focused on the consequences of predator‐regulation of herbivore populations, and associated trophic cascades. However apex predators may also control smaller ‘mesopredators’ through intraguild interactions. Removal of apex predators can result in changes to intraguild interactions and...