Patterned vegetation
Encyclopedia
Fir wave
A fir wave is a set of alternating bands of fir trees in sequential stages of development, observed in forests on exposed mountain slopes in several areas, including northeastern North America and Japan...
s, tiger bush
Tiger bush
Tiger bush is a patterned vegetation community consisting of alternating bands of trees or shrubs, separated by bare ground or low herb cover, that run roughly parallel to contour lines of equal elevation...
, and string bog
String bog
A String bog or Strong mire is a bog consisting of slightly elevated ridges and islands, with woody plants, alternating with flat, wet sedge mat areas. String bogs occur on slightly sloping surfaces, with the ridges at right angles to the direction of water flow...
. The patterns typically arise from an interplay of phenomena that differentially encourage plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
growth or mortality. A coherent pattern arises because there is a strong directional component to these phenomena, such as wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
in the case of fir waves, or surface runoff
Surface runoff
Surface runoff is the water flow that occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water from rain, meltwater, or other sources flows over the land. This is a major component of the water cycle. Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a channel is also called a nonpoint source...
in the case of tiger bush.