Density-dependent aggregation underlies spatial self-organization in coastal dunes.
7 affiliations
- 1Department of Coastal Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg 1790 AB, The Netherlands.
- 2Department of Sustainable Development, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CB, The Netherlands.
- 3Centre for Environmental Quality, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven 3720 BA, The Netherlands.
- 4Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3508 TC, The Netherlands.
- 5Department of Ecology, University of Alicante, Alicante 03690, Spain.
- 6Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen 9700 CC, The Netherlands.
- 7Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke 4401 NT, The Netherlands.
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.
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BibTeX
@article{berghuis2026densitydependent,
title = {{Density-dependent aggregation underlies spatial self-organization in coastal dunes.}},
author = {Paul M J Berghuis and Koen Siteur and Valérie C Reijers and Angeles G Mayor and Tjisse van der Heide and Johan van de Koppel and Max Rietkerk},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2610711123},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42842398},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Density-dependent aggregation underlies spatial self-organization in coastal dunes.
AU - Paul M J Berghuis
AU - Koen Siteur
AU - Valérie C Reijers
AU - Angeles G Mayor
AU - Tjisse van der Heide
AU - Johan van de Koppel
AU - Max Rietkerk
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2610711123
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42842398
AB - 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.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -