ArticleScience advances2023
Self-organized mud cracking amplifies the resilience of an iconic "Red Beach" salt marsh.
Article in Science advances, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Climatic Legacies Drive Spatial Aggregation of Plants in Drylands.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Soil fungi influence the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Interspecific dispersal constraints suppress pattern formation in metacommunities.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
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8 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
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Abstract
Self-organized patterning, resulting from the interplay of biological and physical processes, is widespread in nature. Studies have suggested that biologically triggered self-organization can amplify ecosystem resilience. However, if purely physical forms of self-organization play a similar role remains unknown. Desiccation soil cracking is a typical physical form of self-organization in coastal salt marshes and other ecosystems. Here, we show that physically self-organized mud cracking was an important facilitating process for the establishment of seepweeds in a "Red Beach" salt marsh in China. Transient mud cracks can promote plant survivorship by trapping seeds, and enhance germination and growth by increasing water infiltration in the soil, thus facilitating the formation of a persistent salt marsh landscape. Cracks can help the salt marsh withstand more intense droughts, leading to postponed collapse and faster recovery. These are indications of enhanced resilience. Our work highlights that self-organized landscapes sculpted by physical agents can play a critical role in ecosystem dynamics and resilience to climate change.
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