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Keystone Collapse

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Welcome to keystonecollapse.site, the home of the Keystone Collapse science-meets-art outreach project based at the University of Southampton. Follow the links below to find out more about the science about ecosystem collapse and the artwork created during this project.

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About the Science

Over the past 40 years, the total number of wild animals on Earth has halved. Humans are producing a mass extinction event greater than any in the past 62 million years. Decreasing biodiversity may be similar to popping out rivets from an aircraft. A few missing rivets will not cause too much harm. But continuing to remove them threatens a collapse. This artwork interprets research conducted by a team of academics (Doncaster et al 2016) in the UK & China on how increased pollution in Chinese lakes changed biodiversity which acted as a signal of an impending ecosystem collapse.

Read more About the Science

About the Artwork

Southampton sculptor Chris Cudlip worked with Dr James Dyke to produce a clay representation of a lake sediment core. Different diatom species are represented in relief. A critical transition occurs halfway up the column.

Read more About the Artwork

Sculpture at SOTSEF! 18/3/17

The Keystone Collapse sculpture will be at the University of Southampton Science & Engineering Festival on Saturday 18th March in the Biodiversity Zone down in the University Gardens – come see us there!

Read more Sculpture at SOTSEF! 18/3/17

The Paper

This outreach is linked to research published in the journal Ecology - click here for the original paper.

Citation: Doncaster, Alonso Chávez, Viguier, Wang, Zhang, Dong, Dearing, Langdon, & Dyke (2016), Early warning of critical transitions in biodiversity from compositional disorder, Ecology 97, 11, p3079-3090. doi:10.1002/ecy.1558

In the Media

You can read more about the science behind this project in The Guardian and in The Conversation

Blogposts

  • Sculpture at SOTSEF! 18/3/17

Credits

Artwork conception Chris Cudlip & Dr James Dyke. Artwork creation Chris Cudlip cudlipsculpture.com. Original research from Doncaster et al (2016). Website by David A. McKay & Rachael Avery. Images credited in situ.

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