Cited by 1,353Ecosystem dynamics and resilienceFire effects on ecosystemsEcology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

The Global Extent and Determinants of Savanna and Forest as Alternative Biome States

Staver, A. Carla, Archibald, Sally, Levin, Simon A.·2011·Science

Abstract

Savanna and forest are alternative states governed by fire at intermediate rainfall levels.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1126/science.1210465

Cites

38 of 38 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Satellite observations suggest a critical threshold at 7 months of dry season length.

    “Satellite observations of tree cover distributions across tropical South America suggest a critical threshold at 7 months of dry season length79 (DSL).”

    From Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system (2024) · cites this paper as [79]

  • Satellite observations of tree cover distributions across tropical South America suggest a critical threshold between 1,000 and 1,250 mm of annual rainfall.

    “Satellite observations of tree cover distributions across tropical South America suggest a critical threshold between 1,000 and 1,250 mm of annual rainfall78,79.”

    From Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system (2024) · cites this paper as [79]

  • Fire is unlikely to be unilaterally responsive to climate in a deterministic way.

    “These data and several recent papers (42, 43) support our contention that fire is unlikely to be unilaterally responsive to climate in a deterministic way.”

    From Defining pyromes and global syndromes of fire regimes (2013) · cites this paper as [42]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Staver, A. C., Archibald, S., & Levin, S. A.
Affiliations
  • Princeton University (US)
  • Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (ZA)
Corresponding author
Staver, A. Carla
Venue
Science
Published
2011-10-14
Volume
334
Issue
6053
Pages
230-232
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W2043882198
Cited by
1,353
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 78 · 2025: 75 · 2024: 89 · 2023: 107 · 2022: 108 · 2021: 118 · 2020: 94 · 2019: 121 · 2018: 93 · 2017: 78 · 2016: 114 · 2015: 97 · 2014: 70 · 2013: 71 · 2012: 35
FWCI
48.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Keywords
forest-savanna transition, alternative stable states, climate seasonality, rainfall, biome distribution, Amazon basin, Congo Basin
MeSH terms
Australia, Fires, Geography, Rain, Seasons, Soil, South America, Trees, Tropical Climate, Ecosystem, Africa South of the Sahara

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review