Is the patch size distribution of vegetation a suitable indicator of desertification processes? Comment

Abstract

With ongoing climate change, the search for indicators of imminent ecosystem shifts is attracting increasing attention (e.g., Scheffer et al. 2009). Recently, the spatial organization of ecosystems has been suggested as a good candidate for such an indicator in spatially structured ecosystems (Rietkerk et al. 2004, Ke´fi et al. 2007a, Guttal and Jayaprakash 2009).