Maxim Shoshany | Eco Geo Info | Spatial Duality | Geo Eco | Duality

Article Submitted to International Journal of Geographical Information Science
Self-Organization and Emergence in Implicit Patch Pattern Evolution
 along a Mediterranean Climatic Gradient

  'Self-Organization' characterize wide range of patch pattern dynamic phenomena such as forests and urban systems, and has important role in maintaining their stability. Yet, fundamental questions concerning spatial mechanisms of self-organization, their 'signatures' and their relationships with environmental controls gained limited attention in geo-sciences,  partly due to the scarcity of spatio-temporal data bases. Application of 'Implicit Reconstruction' technique on air photographs of 3 sites along a Mediterranean to Arid transect, facilitated the extraction of sequences of patch pattern maps  representing implicitly the vegetation and soil dynamics.  Parameterizing patch patterns using measures of fragmentation and aggregation allowed assessment of modes of patterns' evolution along these sequences.  Two types of self-organization were studied here: 'shifting emergence' referring to modes of patch pattern evolution which are correlated to environmental shifts as represented by surface albedo; and 'Relative self-organization' referring to relationships maintained inbetween patch pattern properties (PPPs) between and within sites. The high variability of  albedo relationships with PPPs  and their irregularity along the climatic transect undermined the support for the functioning of 'shifting emergence'.  The empirical support gained on the other hand to the 'Relative Self-Organization' hypothesis, despite this variability, suggests 'pattern modification of temporal dynamics' or 'process independent patterning'. This result is highly  significance to better understanding of self-organization mechanisms and their implementation in geo-simulations of patch pattern processes.