Critical Transitions in Plant-Pollinator Systems Induced by Positive Inbreeding-Reward-Pollinator Feedbacks

In many regions of the world pollinator populations are rapidly declining, a trend that is expected to disrupt major ecosystem functions and services. These changes in pollinator abundance may be prone to critical transitions with abrupt shifts to a state strongly depleted both in pollinator and vegetation abundance. Here we develop a process-based model to investigate the effect of a positive pollinator-vegetation feedback, whereby an initial...