Back to Departmental Colloquium: Spring 2022
Departmental Colloquium
Date: Thursday, Mar 24, 2022
Time: 4:00PM
Location: JWB 335
Mary Silber
University of Chicago
Title |
Vegetation Pattern Formation in Drylands |
Abstract |
A beautiful example of spontaneous pattern formation occurs in certain dryland environments around the globe. Stripes of vegetation alternate with stripes of bare soil, with striking regularity and on a scale readily monitored via satellites. Though the vegetation is a showstopping spectacle, water, which is the limiting resource for these ecosystems, is the unseen player behind the scenes. Water concentrates into the vegetated zones, essentially reinforcing vegetation patterning, via positive feedbacks, and its dynamics play out on the short timescales of the rare storms. In contrast, the vegetation may change very little over decades. Mathematicians, physicists and theoretical ecologists have had a blast creating and analyzing models of the slow vegetation dynamics. They have suggested, based on model simulations, monitoring changes to pattern characteristics as early warning signs of ecosystem collapse, e.g., under climate change. In this talk I will tell you a little bit about the empirical data, the models, the analysis and numerical simulations. I will also advocate for a shift in focus to the water resource that is entering the system, and the need to observe and model it better on its timescale. Our work suggests some alternative perspectives on these fascinating patterns, and new questions about how they might respond to changes in precipitation characteristics, such as seasonality, storm strength and storm frequency, that will likely occur as a consequence of climate change. |
Computational Mathematics
Applied Mathematics