Arie studies how feedbacks in ecosystems and the Earth system affect the resilience of these systems. Much of his work focuses on the Amazon rainforest, where local-scale vegetation-fire feedbacks and regional-scale forest-rainfall feedbacks affect the forest’s resilience to climate change and deforestation. In his research, he uses models of differing complexity and satellite-based datasets combined with insights from dynamical systems theory. His current NWO-VENI project “Recovering tropical forest resilience in the Anthropocene” is aimed at identifying areas across the tropics where forest protection and targeted forest restoration would generate the greatest benefits to forest resilience in the Anthropocene.