Related papers: Assessing the robustness of spatial pattern sequen…
We construct far-from-onset radially symmetric spot and gap solutions in a two-component dryland ecosystem model of vegetation pattern formation on flat terrain, using spatial dynamics and geometric singular perturbation theory. We draw…
Tree-grass coexistence is a defining feature of savanna ecosystems, which play an important role in supporting biodiversity and human populations worldwide. While recent advances have clarified many of the underlying processes, how these…
Understanding the causes and effects of spatial vegetation patterns is a fundamental problem in ecology, especially because these can be used as early predictors of catastrophic shifts such as desertification processes. Empirical studies of…
Dryland ecosystems commonly exhibit periodic bands of vegetation, thought to form due to competition between individual plants for heterogeneously distributed water. In this paper, we develop a Fourier method for locally identifying the…
Patches of vegetation consist of dense clusters of shrubs, grass, or trees, often found to be circular characteristic size, defined by the properties of the vegetation and terrain. Therefore, vegetation patches can be interpreted as…
The original Hardenberg's model of biomass patterns in arid and semi-arid regions is revisited to extend it to more general non flat regions. It is proposed a technique to study these more generalized (non-flat) regions using both a…
The process of desertification in the semi-arid climatic zone is considered by many as a catastrophic regime shift, since the positive feedback of vegetation density on growth rates yields a system that admits alternative steady states.…
The robustness of an ecological network quantifies the resilience of the ecosystem it represents to species loss. It corresponds to the proportion of species that are disconnected from the rest of the network when extinctions occur…
This is a book chapter, written as a contribution to a new edition of "Dryland Ecohydrology", edited by Paolo D'Odorico, Amilcare Porporato, and Christiane Runyan, (to appear, Springer 2019). It aims to (1) describe some of the background…
In harsh environments, organisms may self-organize into spatially patterned systems in various ways. So far, studies of ecosystem spatial self-organization have primarily focused on apparent orders reflected by regular patterns. However,…
Accurate information on the distribution of vegetation species is used as a proxy for the health of an ecosystem, a currency of international environmental treaties, and a necessary planning tool for forest preservation and rehabilitation,…
Enhancement of the predictive power and robustness of nonlinear population dynamics models allows ecologists to make more reliable forecasts about species' long term survival. However, the limited availability of detailed ecological data,…
Understanding how desertification takes place in different ecosystems is an important step in attempting to forecast and prevent such transitions. Dryland ecosystems often exhibit patchy vegetation, which has been shown to be an important…
Discrete-time random walks and their extensions are common tools for analyzing animal movement data. In these analyses, resolution of temporal discretization is a critical feature. Ideally, a model both mirrors the relevant temporal scale…
We report the first experimental realization of pattern formation in a spatially extended nonlinear system when the system is alternated between two states, neither of which exhibits patterning. Dynamical equations modeling the system are…
Understanding droughts in a climate context remains a major challenge. Over the United States, different choices of observations and metrics have often produced diametrically opposite insights. This paper focuses on understanding and…
Regular patterns of vegetation are considered widespread landscapes, although their global extent has never been estimated. Among them, spotted landscapes are of particular interest in the context of climate change. Indeed, regularly spaced…
Dry-land ecosystem has turned into a matter of grave concern, due to growing threat of land degradation and bioproductivity-loss. Self-organized vegetation patterns are a remarkable characteristic of these ecosystems; apart from being…
Recent methodological advances are enabling better examination of speciation and extinction processes and patterns. A major open question is the origin of large discrepancies in species number between groups of the same age. Existing…
We use the context of dryland vegetation to study a general problem of complex pattern forming systems - multiple pattern-forming instabilities that are driven by distinct mechanisms but share the same spectral properties. We find that the…