Self-organized spatial patterns of vegetation are frequent in drylands and, because pattern shape correlates with water availability, they have been suggested as important indicators of ecosystem health. However, the mechanisms underlying pattern emergence remain unclear. Some theories hypothesize that patterns could result from a water-mediated scale-dependent feedback (SDF) whereby interactions favoring plant growth dominate at short distances and growth-inhibitory interactions dominate in the long range. However, we know little about how the presence of a focal plant affects the fitness of its neighbors as a function of the inter-individual distance, which is expected to be highly ecosystem-dependent. This lack of empirical knowledge and system dependency challenge the relevance of SDF as a unifying theory for vegetation pattern formation. Assuming that plant interactions are always inhibitory and only their intensity is scale-dependent, alternative theories also recover the typical vegetation patterns observed in nature. Importantly, although these alternative hypotheses lead to visually indistinguishable patterns, they predict contrasting desertification dynamics, which questions the potential use of vegetation patterns as ecosystem-state indicators. To help resolve this issue, we first review existing theories for vegetation self-organization and their conflicting predictions about desertification dynamics. Second, we discuss potential empirical tests via manipulative experiments to identify pattern-forming mechanisms and link them to specific desertification dynamics. A comprehensive view of models, the mechanisms they intend to capture, and experiments to test them in the field will help to better understand both how patterns emerge and improve predictions on the fate of the ecosystems where they form.
Evaluating the importance of environmental factors on the spatial distribution of livestock settlements in the Monte desert with a Monte Carlo based model: Settlement Dynamics in Drylands (SeDD)
Traveling vegetation-herbivore waves can sustain ecosystems threatened by droughts and population growth
The Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University（瑞士干旱环境能源研究所，布拉斯泰因沙漠研究所，本-古里安大学）；Institute for Mathematics, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg（奥尔登堡卡尔·冯·奥西茨基大学数学研究所）；Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University（本-古里安大学物理系）
Aperiodic clustered and periodic hexagonal vegetation spot arrays explained by inhomogeneous environments and climate trends in arid ecosystems
Universidad de Chile（智利大学）；Millennium Institute for Research in Optics（光学研究千年研究所）；Université Libre de Bruxelles (U.L.B)（布鲁塞尔自由大学）；Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS)（先进系统理解中心）；Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)（德累斯顿-罗斯多夫亥姆霍兹中心）；Faculté des Sciences, Université Moulay Ismail（穆莱·伊斯梅尔大学理学院）
How spatial patterns can lead to less resilient ecosystems
Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) – Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)（先进系统理解中心（CASUS）– 德累斯顿-罗斯多夫亥姆霍兹中心（HZDR））；ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research（国际理论物理研究所南美基础研究中心）；Instituto de Física Teórica, Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP（理论物理研究所，圣保罗州立大学（UNESP））
Vegetation Patterning Can Both Impede and Trigger Critical Transitions from Savanna to Grassland
Mathematical Institute, Leiden University（莱顿大学数学研究所）；National Research Council, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC)（国家研究委员会大气科学与气候研究所）；National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC)（国家生物多样性未来中心）；The Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, BIDR, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev（内盖夫本古里安大学瑞士干旱环境能源研究所）；Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev（内盖夫本古里安大学物理系）；Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Section Environmental Sciences, Utrecht University（乌得勒支大学可持续发展哥白尼研究所环境科学科）
Self-organized vegetation patterns promote persistence of plant-pollinator mutualisms under environmental stress
Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS)（先进系统理解中心）；Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)（德累斯顿-罗斯多夫亥姆霍兹中心）；Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal da Paraíba（帕拉伊巴联邦大学物理系）；ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research & Instituto de Física Teórica, Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP（国际理论物理研究所南美基础研究院与理论物理研究所，圣保罗州立大学）；Department of Ecology, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo（圣保罗大学生物科学学院生态学系）
Linking individual bioenergetics to ecosystem dynamics with integral projection models
University of Oxford（牛津大学）；Griffith University（格里菲斯大学）；National Park Service（国家公园管理局）；The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；Utah State University（犹他州立大学）
Kernel-Dependent Pattern Formation in a Population Model with Nonlocal Facilitation and Competition
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign（卡尔·R·沃斯基因组生物学研究所，伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；Colby College（科尔比学院）
