Debayan Bhattacharya, Amit Reza, RN Singh, Shantamoy Guha

Vegetation community plays a pivotal role in geomorphic processes. However, the growth of vegetation intrinsically depends on the effective shear stresses exerted by the flow of material (e.g. water or soil) along the slope. We comparatively assess the growth and decay of vegetation using linear and logistic growth model coupled with a runoff erosion model. The model parameters are calibrated with normalized vegetation cover along a slope from Western Ghat escarpment. The deterministic model suggests that the logistic growth model is better predictor of vegetation profiles along a slope transect. Additionally, we propose a stochastic model to capture the role of internal or external factors in the dynamics of vegetation growth using two Gaussian noises. The steady probability distribution functions from the stochastic model provide insight about the role of different noises on the reaction of the system and suggest that bio-environmental factors are difficult to separate out.