With long-time collaborator Trenton Franz, we recently developed a dynamic cellular automata model that incorporates the factors that our empirical research has shown to strongly govern vegetation dynamics at the patch scale (2-4m): rain event frequency and intensity, surface water flow paths, infiltration, vegetation growth, death, and ungulate herbivory. Building on a static hillslope model that Trenton developed as part of his dissertation research, we have built in growing-season patch type transition functions that depend on seasonal soil moisture, as well as dry-season transition functions that depend on grazing intensity and antecedent patch growth. It’s generating some interesting results, which will be coming out soon in Ecological Modelling…
Collaborators: Trenton Franz [School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska]