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Tree clusters in savannas result from islands of soil moisture.

ABSTRACT: Tree clusters in savannas are commonly found in sizes that follow power laws with well-established exponents. We show that their size distributions could result from the space-time probabilistic structure of soil moisture, estimated over the range of rainfall observed in semiarid savannas; patterns of soil moisture display islands whose size, for moisture thresholds above the mean, follows power laws. These islands are the regions where trees are expected to exist and they have a fractal structure whose perimeter-area relationship is the same as observed in field data for the clustering of trees. When the impact of fire and herbivores is accounted for, as acting through the perimeter of the tree clusters, the power law of the soil moisture islands is transformed into a power law with the same exponents observed in the tree cluster data.

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Iturbe I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6452714 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tree clusters in savannas result from islands of soil moisture.

Rodriguez-Iturbe Ignacio I Chen Zijuan Z Stave Ann Carla AC Levin Simon Asher SA

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20190314 14

Tree clusters in savannas are commonly found in sizes that follow power laws with well-established exponents. We show that their size distributions could result from the space-time probabilistic structure of soil moisture, estimated over the range of rainfall observed in semiarid savannas; patterns of soil moisture display islands whose size, for moisture thresholds above the mean, follows power laws. These islands are the regions where trees are expected to exist and they have a fractal structu ...[more]

PMID: 30872483

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