Ecological Feedbacks in the Earth System

Authors

• Eugene J. Murphy, British Antarctic Survey
• Jessica J. Williams, Imperial College London
• Isla H. Myers-Smith, University of British Columbia
• Vivienne P. Groner, Imperial College London
• David M. P. Jacoby, Lancaster University
• Lester Kwiatkowski, Sorbonne Université
• Jess Melbourne-Thomas, CSIRO Environment
• Emma Ransome, Imperial College London
• Cristina Banks-Leite, Imperial College London
• Laurent Bopp, Sorbonne Université
• Marion Gehlen, Université Paris Saclay
• Eileen E. Hofmann, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• Babette Hoogakker, Heriot-Watt University
• Nadine M. Johnston, British Antarctic Survey
• Yadvinder Malhi, University of Oxford
• Emma L. Cavan, Imperial College London

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1029/2025EF006478

Publication Title

Earth's Future

Volume

14

Issue

2

Pages

e2025EF006478

Abstract

Ecological feedbacks are fundamental features of the Earth system, affecting physical processes and chemical cycles. Our understanding of the interactions underlying these feedbacks at different spatial and temporal scales and the extent to which feedbacks affect Earth system functioning remains limited. Climate change and other anthropogenic pressures are already negatively affecting ecological processes in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems. These will most likely be amplified in the coming decades under our current warming and socioeconomic pathways. The knock-on impacts on ecological feedbacks have the potential to cause rapid perturbations to the Earth system, and may significantly impact the structure and functioning of ecosystems. Yet, the role of our planet's diverse ecological feedbacks in Earth system processes and the impacts of perturbations are major knowledge gaps. Here we review and synthesize current understanding of ecological feedbacks and how they affect physical and chemical processes. We then consider the implications of ecological feedbacks for analyses of anthropogenically-driven change, development of scientific understanding and models, and provision of scientific advice for policymakers. Finally, we identify three priority future research areas for the rapid assessment and integration of ecological feedbacks in Earth system science: (a) including ecological feedbacks in assessments of global change and Earth system models, (b) incorporating ecological feedbacks across scales, and (c) producing projections suitable for policy advice. Overall, this review presents an urgent call to the scientific community for the rapid development of understanding of ecological feedbacks and integrated ecosystem—Earth system research.

Rights

© 2026. The Authors

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Data Availability

Article states: "Data were not used, nor created for this research."

Original Publication Citation

Murphy, E. J., Williams, J. J., Myers‐Smith, I. H., Groner, V. P., Jacoby, D. M. P., Kwiatkowski, L., Melbourne‐Thomas, J., Ransome, E., Banks‐Leite, C., Bopp, L., Gehlen, M., Hofmann, E. E., Hoogakker, B., Johnston, N. M., Malhi, Y., & Cavan, E. L. (2026). Ecological feedbacks in the Earth system. Earth's Future, 14(2), Article e2025EF006478. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EF006478

Repository Citation

Murphy, Eugene J.; Williams, Jessica J.; Myers-Smith, Isla H.; Groner, Vivienne P.; Jacoby, David M. P.; Kwiatkowski, Lester; Melbourne-Thomas, Jess; Ransome, Emma; Banks-Leite, Cristina; Bopp, Laurent; Gehlen, Marion; Hofmann, Eileen E.; Hoogakker, Babette; Johnston, Nadine M.; Malhi, Yadvinder; and Cavan, Emma L., "Ecological Feedbacks in the Earth System" (2026). CCPO Publications. 413.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/ccpo_pubs/413

ORCID

0000-0001-6710-4371 (Hofmann)