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Are rainforests self-organized in a critical state?

✍ Scribed by Ricard V. Solé; Susanna C. Manrubia

Publisher
Elsevier Science
Year
1995
Tongue
English
Weight
934 KB
Volume
173
Category
Article
ISSN
0022-5193

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✦ Synopsis

The spatial distribution of low-canopy gaps in the Barro Colorado Island rainforest (Panama) is shown to exhibit fractal properties. A simple cellular automata model (the ''Forest Game'') was constructed in order to simulate the gap dynamics of such forests as well as the observed macroscopic spatial regularities. Generalized fractal dimensions are studied as a function of several relevant parameters. The observed and simulated fractal behaviour is shown to be related to self-similar dynamics of biomass. This result is interpreted as related to the emergence of a class of ''self-organized critical state''.

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