We evaluate potential warning signals that may aid in identifying the proximity of ecological
communities to biodiversity thresholds from habitat loss—often termed “tipping points”—in
tropical forests. We used datasets from studies of Neotropical mammal, frog, bird, and insect
communities. Our findings provide only limited evidence that an increase in the variance
(heteroskedasticity) of biodiversity-related parameters can provide a general warning signal
of impending threshold changes in communities, as forest loss increases. However, such an …