@article{fdi:010049319,
  title = {{D}eeply gapped vegetation patterns : on crown/root allometry, criticality and desertification},
  author = {{L}efever, {R}. and {B}arbier, {N}. and {C}outeron, {P}ierre and {L}ejeune, {O}.},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{T}he dynamics of vegetation is formulated in terms of the allometric and structural properties of plants. {W}ithin the framework of a general and yet parsimonious approach, we focus on the relationship between the morphology of individual plants and the spatial organization of vegetation populations. {S}o far, in theoretical as well as in field studies, this relationship has received only scant attention. {T}he results reported remedy to this short coming. {T}hey highlight the importance of the crown/root ratio and demonstrate that the allometric relationship between this ratio and plant development plays an essential part in all matters regarding ecosystems stability under conditions of limited soil (water) resources. {T}his allometry determines the coordinates in parameter space of a critical point that controls the conditions in which the emergence of self-organized biomass distributions is possible. {W}e have quantified this relationship in terms of parameters that are accessible by measurement of individual plant characteristics. {I}t is further demonstrated that, close to criticality, the dynamics of plant populations is given by a variational {S}wift-{H}ohenberg equation. {T}he evolution of vegetation in response to increasing aridity, the conditions of gapped pattern formation and the conditions under which desertification takes place are investigated more specifically. {I}t is shown that desertification may occur either as a local desertification process that does not affect pattern morphology in the course of its unfolding or as a gap coarsening process after the emergence of a transitory, deeply gapped pattern regime. {O}ur results amend the commonly held interpretation associating vegetation patterns with a {T}uring instability. {T}hey provide a more unified understanding of vegetation self-organization within the broad context of matter order-disorder transitions.},
  keywords = {{V}egetation gapped patterns ; {C}ompetition ; {S}elf-organization ; {D}iffusion ; instability in ecosystems ; {S}wift-{H}ohenberg equation},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{J}ournal of {T}heoretical {B}iology},
  volume = {261},
  numero = {2},
  pages = {194--209},
  ISSN = {0022-5193},
  year = {2009},
  DOI = {10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.07.030},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010049319},
}