Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42814819›Full record

ArticleScience advances2026

Self-organized hummock-hollow patterns redistribute salinity stress in coastal meadows.

Mingxuan Wu, Jim van Belzen, Archontoula Valsamidou, Zhiyuan Zhao, Gregory Fivash, Tjeerd J Bouma, Quan-Xing Liu, Max Rietkerk, Pieter C Roos, Johan van de Koppel

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Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Mingxuan WuDepartment of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-9332-5784
Jim van BelzenDepartment of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0003-2099-1545
Archontoula ValsamidouDepartment of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke, Netherlands.ORCID 0009-0003-9872-986X
Zhiyuan ZhaoDepartment of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-4113-3796
Gregory FivashEcosphere Research Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0002-0767-7036
Tjeerd J BoumaDepartment of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-7824-7546
Quan-Xing LiuSchool of Mathematical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.ORCID 0000-0002-8602-0154
Max RietkerkCopernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-2698-3848
Pieter C RoosMarine and Fluvial Systems, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-7866-7820
Johan van de KoppelDepartment of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Yerseke, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-0103-4275

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Self-organization theory predicts that ecosystem functioning and resilience can emerge from feedbacks that generate spatial patterns. These emergent properties have commonly been explained by local positive feedbacks that concentrate limiting resources within productive patches. Here, we identify a stress-redistribution feedback underlying self-organized hummock-hollow patterning. Through this feedback, salinity stress is partitioned across the patterned landscape, maintaining vegetated hummocks as low-salinity refugia alongside salt-rich hollows and thereby sustaining ecosystem functioning under climate-related salinization. A spatially explicit model predicts that rain-driven salt redistribution lowers hummocks salinity, increases productivity, and enhances resilience to a salt pulse. Field and remote-sensing data support these predictions: Patterned hummocks have lower soil salinity, higher biomass, greater reproductive output, and prolonged phenological activity compared with adjacent homogeneous vegetation. Together, these results reveal that spatial self-organization can support ecosystem functioning and resilience under climate stress through an underappreciated mechanism: the spatial redistribution of environmental stress. Restoring such self-organized patterning may offer a promising strategy for sustaining ecosystems in a changing climate.

Identifiers

PMID42814819
PMCPMC13626036

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.