Multistability of model and real dryland ecosystems through spatial self-organization.

Spatial self-organization of dryland vegetation constitutes one of the most promising indicators for an ecosystem's proximity to desertification. This insight is based on studies of reaction-diffusion models that reproduce visual characteristics of vegetation patterns observed on aerial photographs. However, until now, the development of reliable early warning systems has been hampered by the lack of more in-depth comparisons between model predictions and real ecosystem patterns.