tipping point
The threshold at which disturbance to a complex system (like the climate or an ecosystem) is so great that it can no longer maintain its stable state, so that it collapses suddenly to a radically different state. Tipping points have resulted in the collapse of former civilizations and in desertification.
This definition is abridged from A – Z of tree terms: A companion to British arboriculture.
Read the preface. Order the book.