Vegetation Pattern Formation with an Energy-Mismatch Variational Closure

Abstract

We study a vegetation-water model motivated by a canopy energy mismatch. Vegetation follows the gradient of a score that rewards biomass and penalizes the squared mismatch, while water obeys a quasi-steady balance. For a fixed interaction kernel, the linear growth rate about positive uniform vegetation splits into a fixed-water term and a water-feedback term. The fixed-water term is real, even in wavenumber, and equal to a constant minus a squared modulus, including when the kernel is asymmetric. All linear phase propagation enters through water feedback. A second-order expansion of the kernel gives a fourth-order vegetation equation, for which we derive finite-wavenumber growth criteria and corrections from state-dependent spatial coefficients. The short-wave damping and fastest-growing scales of this truncated model require separate justification as approximations to a specified kernel. A numerical dispersion example illustrates the growth and phase velocity of its linear modes. The model creates biomass on bare ground throughout the rainfall range illustrated here, including zero rainfall. At some smooth nonnegative states, the vegetation growth rate is negative where biomass vanishes. These features limit its ecological interpretation.

14 pages, 1 figure. Shortened and corrected; title changed. Errors in numerical computation and interpretation undermine the earlier nonlinear conclusions and numerical mechanism classifications, which have been removed. The replacement retains the model formulation and restricted linear analysis, with corrected analytical statements and clarified assumptions and limitations