Traveling vegetation–herbivore waves may sustain ecosystems threatened by droughts and population growth

Dryland vegetation can survive water stress by forming spatial patterns but is often subjected to herbivory as an additional stress that puts it at risk of desertification. Understanding the mutual relationships between vegetation patterning and herbivory is crucial for securing food production in drylands, which constitute the majority of rangelands worldwide. Here, we introduce a novel vegetation–herbivore model that captures pattern-forming feedbacks associated with water and herbivory stress and a behavioral aspect of herbivores representing an exploitation strategy. We find that herbivory stress can induce traveling vegetation–herbivore waves and uncover the ecological mechanism that drives their formation. In the traveling-wave state, the herbivore distribution is asymmetric with higher density on one side of each vegetation patch. At low precipitation values their distribution is localized, while at high precipitation the herbivores are spread over the entire landscape. Importantly, their asymmetric distribution results in uneven herbivory stress, strong on one side of each vegetation patch and weak on the opposing side — weaker than the stress exerted in spatially uniform herbivore distribution. Consequently, the formation of traveling waves results in increased sustainability to herbivory stress. We conclude that vegetation–herbivore traveling waves may play an essential role in sustaining herbivore populations under conditions of combined water and herbivory stress, thereby contributing to food security in endangered regions threatened by droughts and population growth.