Aggregation dynamics explain vegetation patch-size distributions

M.A. Irvine, J.C. Bull and M.J. Keeling

Theoretical Population Biology, 2016, vol. 108, issue C, 70-74

Abstract: Vegetation patch-size distributions have been an intense area of study for theoreticians and applied ecologists alike in recent years. Of particular interest is the seemingly ubiquitous nature of power-law patch-size distributions emerging in a number of diverse ecosystems. The leading explanation of the emergence of these power-laws is due to local facilitative mechanisms. There is also a common transition from power law to exponential distribution when a system is under global pressure, such as grazing or lack of rainfall. These phenomena require a simple mechanistic explanation. Here, we study vegetation patches from a spatially implicit, patch dynamic viewpoint. We show that under minimal assumptions a power-law patch-size distribution appears as a natural consequence of aggregation. A linear death term also leads to an exponential term in the distribution for any non-zero death rate. This work shows the origin of the breakdown of the power-law under increasing pressure and shows that in general, we expect to observe a power law with an exponential cutoff (rather than pure power laws). The estimated parameters of this distribution also provide insight into the underlying ecological mechanisms of aggregation and death.

Keywords: Patch-size distribution; Pattern formation; Spatial ecology; Aggregation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040580915001239
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:108:y:2016:i:c:p:70-74

DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2015.12.001

Access Statistics for this article

Theoretical Population Biology is currently edited by Jeremy Van Cleve

More articles in Theoretical Population Biology from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().