Evidence of Biological Self-Organization in Spatial Patterns of a Common Tropical Alga

Tropical reef communities contain spatial patterns at multiple scales, observable from microscope and satellite alike. Many of the smaller-scale patterns are generated physiologically (e.g., skeletal structures of corals at1-m scale), while some of the larger patterns have been attributed to scale-dependent feedbacks (e.g., spur and groove reefs at 10-100-m scales). In describing the spatial patterning of reef benthic communities at landscape levels, we uncovered unique spatial patterning among living marine algae. Populations of the calcifying green alga