Competing Turing Mechanisms in Dryland Pattern Forming Systems


  Yuval Zelnik [1]  ,  Shai Kinast [1]  ,  Golan Bel [1]  ,  Ehud Meron [1,2]  
[1] Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Ben-Gurion University
[2] Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University

We use the context of dryland vegetation to study a general problem of complex pattern forming systems - multiple pattern-forming instabilities that are driven by distinct mechanisms but share the same spectral properties. This study shows that the co-occurrence of two Turing instabilities, when the driving mechanisms counteract each other in some region of the parameter space, results in the growth of a single mode rather than two interacting modes. The interplay between the two mechanisms compensates for the simpler dynamics of a single mode by inducing a wider variety of patterns, which implies higher biodiversity in dryland ecosystems.