Marten Scheffer

Marten Scheffer is interested in unravelling the mechanisms that determine the stability and resilience of complex systems. Although much of his work has focused on ecosystems, he also worked with a range of scientists from other disciplines to address issues of stability and shifts in natural and social systems. Examples include the feedback between atmospheric carbon and the earth temperature, the collapse of ancient societies, inertia and shifts in public opinion, evolutionary emergence of patterns of species similarity, the effect of climatic extremes on forest dynamics and the balance of facilitation and competition in plant communities. With the help of a Spinoza award and an ERC advanced grant he founded SparcS and now works on finding generic early warning signals for critical transitions. He also co-founded the ‘South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies’ SARAS and is currently a distinguished professor at Wageningen University.

Marten Scheffer is also a musician,

playing violin, mandoline and guitar. For examples of his work see his website http://martenscheffermusic.com.

Concerted Science

Concerted Science in an experiment in combining reason and intuition in a performance with music and science (see announcement [in Dutch]). It has been performed in 2012 and 2013.

See concerted science for one of the shows (50 minutes in Dutch with English subtitles).

Latest book

A book on critical transitions with examples from ecosystems, climate and social systems.

A cd with new compositions for percussion, wind and string instruments.

E-mail: Marten.Scheffer@wur.nl

Publication list (Google Scholar) 

Some selected publications:

Future of the human climate niche
Xu, C., Kohler, T.A., Lenton, T.M., Svenning, J.-C. & Scheffer, M. (2020)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 (21):11350-11355 [Full text]

Quantifying resilience of humans and other animals
Scheffer, M., Elizabeth Bolhuis, J., Borsboom, D., Buchman, T.G., Gijzel, S.M.W., Goulson, D., Kammenga, J.E., Kemp, B., van de Leemput, I.A., Levin, S., Martin, C.M., Melis, R.J.F., van Nes, E.H., Michael Romero, L. & Olde Rikkert, M.G.M. (2018)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115 (47):11883-11890 [Full text]

Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene
Steffen, W., Rockström, J., Richardson, K., Lenton, T.M., Folke, C., Liverman, D., Summerhayes, C.P., Barnosky, A.D., Cornell, S.E., Crucifix, M., Donges, J.F., Fetzer, I., Lade, S.J., Scheffer, M., Winkelmann, R. & Schellnhuber, H.J. (2018)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115 (33):8252-8259 [Full text]

Inequality in nature and society
Scheffer, M., van Bavel, B., van de Leemput, I.A. & van Nes, E.H. (2017)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114 (50):13154-13157 [Full text]

Creating a safe operating space for iconic ecosystems
Scheffer, M., Barrett, S., Carpenter, S.R., Folke, C., Green, A.J., Holmgren, M., Hughes, T.P., Kosten, S., van de Leemput, I.A., Nepstad, D.C., van Nes, E.H., Peeters, E.T.H.M. & Walker, B. (2015)
Science 347 (6228):1317-1319 [Full text]

Anticipating critical transitions
Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S.R., Lenton, T.M., Bascompte, J., Brock, W., Dakos, V., van de Koppel, J., van de Leemput, I.A., Levin, S.A., van Nes, E.H., Pascual, M. & Vandermeer, J. (2012)
Science 338 (6105):344-348 [Full text]

Early-warning signals for critical transitions
Scheffer, M., Bascompte, J., Brock, W.A., Brovkin, V., Carpenter, S.R., Dakos, V., Held, H., van Nes, E.H., Rietkerk, M. & Sugihara, G. (2009)
Nature 461 (7260):53-59 [Full text]

  Art by Tone Kristin Bjordam

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