Noise-induced stability in dryland plant ecosystems
- 25 July 2005
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 102 (31), 10819-10822
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0502884102
Abstract
Dryland plant ecosystems tend to exhibit bistable dynamics with two preferential configurations of bare and vegetated soils. Climate fluctuations are usually believed to act as a source of disturbance on these ecosystems and to reduce their stability and resilience. In contrast, this work shows that random interannual fluctuations of precipitation may lead to the emergence of an intermediate statistically stable condition between the two stable states of the deterministic dynamics of vegetation. As a result, there is an enhancement of ecosystem resilience and a decrease in the likelihood of catastrophic shifts to the desert state.Keywords
This publication has 31 references indexed in Scilit:
- Spatial Interactions and Resilience in Arid EcosystemsThe American Naturalist, 2004
- Inferred controls on tree/grass composition in a savanna ecosystem: Combining 16‐year normalized difference vegetation index data with a dynamic soil moisture modelWater Resources Research, 2003
- Self‐Organization of Vegetation in Arid EcosystemsThe American Naturalist, 2002
- Modeling Root Water Uptake in Hydrological and Climate ModelsBulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2001
- Ecosystem dynamics and the Sahel DroughtGeophysical Research Letters, 2000
- Tree-Grass Interactions in SavannasAnnual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 1997
- An analytical dynamic model of grass field ecosystem with two variablesEcological Modelling, 1996
- On the relation between white shot noise, Gaussian white noise, and the dichotomic Markov processJournal of Statistical Physics, 1983
- The Nature of Rainfall Fluctuations in Subtropical West AfricaMonthly Weather Review, 1980
- Desert Ecosystems: Environment and ProducersAnnual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 1973