Vegetation pattern formation in semiarid systems without facilitative mechanisms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that regular vegetation patterns in semiarid ecosystems can form solely due to long-range competition among plants, without the need for facilitative mechanisms, challenging previous assumptions.

Contribution

The authors introduce a simple, general model showing that long-range competition alone can produce vegetation patterns, removing the necessity of facilitation in pattern formation.

Findings

Vegetation patterns can arise from long-range competition alone.

The model reproduces diverse spatial structures seen in ecosystems.

Facilitation is not essential for pattern formation in semiarid systems.

Abstract

Regular vegetation patterns in semiarid ecosystems are believed to arise from the interplay between long-range competition and facilitation processes acting at smaller distances. We show that, under rather general conditions, long-range competition alone may be enough to shape these patterns. To this end we propose a simple, general model for the dynamics of vegetation, which includes only long-range competition between plants. Competition is introduced through a nonlocal term, where the kernel function quantifies the intensity of the interaction. We recover the full spectrum of spatial structures typical of vegetation models that also account for facilitation in addition to competition.