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Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Across coastal ecosystems, habitat-forming organisms interact with wind and water to generate biogeomorphic feedbacks that produce spatially patterned landscapes. Such spatial patterns can emerge through different self-organizing mechanisms, with contrasting implications for ecosystem resilience. Here, we test whether spatial dynamics in developing coastal dunes are better explained by scale-dependent feedback or by density-dependent aggregation (DDA), the latter being a more recently proposed mechanism of spatial self-organization. Using high-resolution aerial imagery and coupled time series of elevation, we tracked the spatial dynamics of dune-grass patches and sand accumulation during early dune development. Rather than converging toward a dominant size or spacing, both dune-grass patches and the dune bodies they collectively form coarsened through time, with self-similar size distributions shifting toward larger scales. Sand accumulation was disproportionately concentrated in already-dense vegetation, with a density\u2013growth relationship that changes sign at a critical threshold. Together, these findings are consistent with DDA rather than scale-dependent feedback as the dominant mechanism of spatial self-organization in developing coastal dunes. The resulting density\u2013growth relationship implies threshold-dependent resilience to local disturbances. Once local vegetation density falls below a critical point, decline is self-reinforcing rather than self-dampening, with direct consequences for how dune disturbance and recovery are understood and managed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2610711123","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,7]],"date-time":"2026-10-07T16:35:51Z","timestamp":1791390951000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Density-dependent aggregation underlies spatial self-organization in coastal dunes"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"123","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-2943-498X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paul M. 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