Aperiodic clustered and periodic hexagonal vegetation spot arrays explained by inhomogeneous environments and climate trends in arid ecosystems

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Pinto-Ramos, D., Clerc, M. G., Makhoute, A., Tlidi, M.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Pinto-Ramos, D.
Clerc, M. G.
Makhoute, A.
Tlidi, M.
author_facet Pinto-Ramos, D.
Clerc, M. G.
Makhoute, A.
Tlidi, M.
contents Due to climate change, overgrazing, and deforestation, arid ecosystems are vulnerable to desertification and land degradation. As aridity increases, vegetation cover loses spatial homogeneity and self-organizes into heterogeneous vegetation patterns, a step before a catastrophic shift to bare soil. Several studies suggest that environmental inhomogeneities in time or space are crucial to understand these phenomena. Using a unified mathematical model and incorporating environmental inhomogeneities in space, we show how two branches of vegetation patterns create a hysteresis loop as the mortality level changes. In an increasing mortality scenario, one observes an equilibrium branch of high vegetation biomass that forms self-organized hexagonal-like patterns. However, when the mortality trend is reversed, one observes a branch with low biomass and no periodicity, where vegetation spots form disordered clusters instead of a hexagonal lattice. This behavior is supported by remote sensing and field observations and can be linked to climate change in arid ecosystems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_12581
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Aperiodic clustered and periodic hexagonal vegetation spot arrays explained by inhomogeneous environments and climate trends in arid ecosystems
Pinto-Ramos, D.
Clerc, M. G.
Makhoute, A.
Tlidi, M.
Populations and Evolution
Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems
Pattern Formation and Solitons
Due to climate change, overgrazing, and deforestation, arid ecosystems are vulnerable to desertification and land degradation. As aridity increases, vegetation cover loses spatial homogeneity and self-organizes into heterogeneous vegetation patterns, a step before a catastrophic shift to bare soil. Several studies suggest that environmental inhomogeneities in time or space are crucial to understand these phenomena. Using a unified mathematical model and incorporating environmental inhomogeneities in space, we show how two branches of vegetation patterns create a hysteresis loop as the mortality level changes. In an increasing mortality scenario, one observes an equilibrium branch of high vegetation biomass that forms self-organized hexagonal-like patterns. However, when the mortality trend is reversed, one observes a branch with low biomass and no periodicity, where vegetation spots form disordered clusters instead of a hexagonal lattice. This behavior is supported by remote sensing and field observations and can be linked to climate change in arid ecosystems.
title Aperiodic clustered and periodic hexagonal vegetation spot arrays explained by inhomogeneous environments and climate trends in arid ecosystems
topic Populations and Evolution
Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems
Pattern Formation and Solitons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.12581