Foraging behaviours lead to spatiotemporal self-similar dynamics in grazing ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Biological behaviour-driven self-organized patterns have recently been confirmed to play a key role in ecosystem functioning. Here, we develop a theoretical phase-separation model to describe spatiotemporal self-similar dynamics, which is a consequence of behaviour-driven trophic interactions in short-time scales. Our framework integrates scale-dependent feedback and density-dependent movement into grazing ecosystems. This model derives six types of selective foraging behaviours that trigger pattern formation for top-down grazing ecosystems, and one of which is consistent with existing foraging theories. Self-organized patterns nucleate under moderate grazing intensity and are destroyed by overgrazing, which suggests ecosystem degradation. Theoretical results qualitatively agree with obser

SUBMITTER: Ge Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9299242 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature