{
  "abstract": "Across coastal ecosystems, habitat-forming organisms interact with wind and water to generate biogeomorphic feedbacks that produce spatially patterned landscapes. Such spatial patterns can emerge through different self-organizing mechanisms, with contrasting implications for ecosystem resilience. Here, we test whether spatial dynamics in developing coastal dunes are better explained by scale-dependent feedback or by density-dependent aggregation (DDA), the latter being a more recently proposed mechanism of spatial self-organization. Using high-resolution aerial imagery and coupled time series of elevation, we tracked the spatial dynamics of dune-grass patches and sand accumulation during early dune development. Rather than converging toward a dominant size or spacing, both dune-grass patches and the dune bodies they collectively form coarsened through time, with self-similar size distributions shifting toward larger scales. Sand accumulation was disproportionately concentrated in already-dense vegetation, with a density-growth relationship that changes sign at a critical threshold. Together, these findings are consistent with DDA rather than scale-dependent feedback as the dominant mechanism of spatial self-organization in developing coastal dunes. The resulting density-growth relationship implies threshold-dependent resilience to local disturbances. Once local vegetation density falls below a critical point, decline is self-reinforcing rather than self-dampening, with direct consequences for how dune disturbance and recovery are understood and managed.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Coastal Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg 1790 AB, The Netherlands.",
    "Department of Sustainable Development, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CB, The Netherlands.",
    "Centre for Environmental Quality, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven 3720 BA, The Netherlands.",
    "Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3508 TC, The Netherlands.",
    "Department of Ecology, University of Alicante, Alicante 03690, Spain.",
    "Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen 9700 CC, The Netherlands.",
    "Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke 4401 NT, The Netherlands."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Paul M J Berghuis",
      "orcid": "0009-0006-2943-498X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Koen Siteur"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Valérie C Reijers",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7781-5019"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Angeles G Mayor"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Tjisse van der Heide"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Johan van de Koppel",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0103-4275"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Max Rietkerk",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2698-3848"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/32jq9b4kmngjw.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1073/pnas.2610711123",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13663705",
  "id": "32jq9b4kmngjw",
  "issns": [
    "0027-8424",
    "1091-6490"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42842398",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1904|Aeolian processes and effects"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220840727",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13663705?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13663705",
  "pmid": "42842398",
  "published": "2026-10-07",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/32jq9b4kmngjw.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:02Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42842398",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42842398"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:1904|Aeolian processes and effects",
      "subfield": "geology-geochemistry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Density-dependent aggregation underlies spatial self-organization in coastal dunes.",
  "title_text": "Density-dependent aggregation underlies spatial self-organization in coastal dunes.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:02Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/32jq9b4kmngjw",
  "venue": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America",
  "versions": []
}