Self‐Organization of Vegetation in Arid Ecosystems

Scientists are still searching for possible unifying mechanisms
\nto explain this range of spatial patterns (Tongway
\nand Ludwig 2001), and an important question of this research
\nis whether this range is the result of preexisting
\nenvironmental heterogeneity, the result of spatial selforganization,
\nor both (Klausmeier 1999; Couteron and
\nLejeune 2001; HilleRisLambers et al. 2001; Von Hardenberg
\net al. 2001). Here, we contribute to the ongoing debate
\nabout vegetation pattern formation in arid ecosystems
\nby presenting novel, spatially explicit model analyses and
\nresults, extending on the work of HilleRisLambers et al.
\n(2001). Our results show that…