Patterned Vegetation Created by Red Harvester Ants and Evidenced in Satellite Images

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna (1)

1 Polito - Politecnico di Torino = Polytechnic of Turin

Large-scale areas of patterned vegetation, with distinctive and repetitive patterns, can arise because of natural phenomena that differentially influence plant growth or mortality and by biotic interactions of animals and plants. Such patterns can be easily observed in satellite images, if they have a high enough resolution for the specific observation. Here we will show that a large area of a patterned vegetation with a " polka-dot " arrangement can be observed in the Toroweap Valley of Arizona, near the Grand Canyon. In this case, the vegetation has been patterned by the presence of the nests of red harvester ants. The observation is remarkable for the large surface occupied by such colonies.

Mots clés: Pattern Formation; Patterned Vegetation; Ecosystems; Satellite Images; Ecosystem Science; Ecology

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Amelia Carolina Sparavigna. Patterned Vegetation Created by Red Harvester Ants and Evidenced in Satellite Images. 2016. ⟨hal-01289240⟩