Fairy circles in Namibia This is one of those structures that seem to be the result of magic, but are actually the result of natural processes. But that doesn’t make them any less exciting. Moreover, for many years its origin was completely obscure.
Some of them are found in much wetter areas, formed by fungi that grow in circles on the grass. But, logically, in Namibian desert humidity is not very abundant. For this reason, the two most common hypotheses for many years were the presence of termites, which ate the roots of plants, leaving small circles without vegetation, or soil self-organization optimize water distribution.
It was unclear which option was the most plausible until very similar fairy circles were discovered. in Australia. The presence of termites in the area does not appear to have been detected. Therefore, the variant of self-organization gained momentum. However, this has not yet been practically fully demonstrated. And that’s exactly what an international team of scientists did in a study published in Perspectives on ecology, evolution and taxonomy of plants.
What are fairy circles?
Despite their name, magic circles patches with pretty hexagonal shape, in which vegetation does not grow inside, but grows strongly along the edges. They are periodically distributed over the earth. That is, we are not talking about a few scattered pits in the sand, but about a number of circles very similar to each other, located more or less at the same distance from each other.
They have been known since the beginning of the 20th century, but it took much longer for their origin to be discussed. And now there seems to be a clearer answer.
When water is a treasure, nature uses it with great care.
The authors of this just-published study have noticed that something very curious is going on in Namibian fairytale circles. And it’s that when it rains yes, some grass grows inside the bald spots. However, he disappears almost immediately after that. It is as if these water resources were donated to the rest of the vegetation.
But to be sure, these scientists followed the sporadic rains in 10 regions with fairy circles. This data was taken between the 2020 dry season and the 2022 rainy season.
Thus, they confirmed that indeed 10 days after the rain, the vegetation inside the fairy circles was very sparse. Also, 20 days later, it has come to a complete stop. Instead, the grass around him was especially green and soft.
On the other hand, they were amazed property specified herb. Interestingly, the fairy circles were even longer inside than outside. This suggests that plants spent a lot of energy searching for water. Moreover, there were no signs termite attack in these roots.
It should have been more soil moisture factorso they proceeded to check the results hygrometers. And there was another key. When the grass had not yet had time to take root well either inside or outside the fairy circles, the humidity slowly decreased equally. However, when the grass on the street was already much stronger, the moisture disappeared almost immediately after the rains. This indicates that the soil optimized the incoming water, keeping it on the vegetation inside the hexes and directing it to the grass outside very effectively. Larger roots were not needed because the soil benefited these plants over those indoors.
Alan Turing was right
Mathematician Alan Turing known primarily because he and his team were able to decipher enigma machine code, which the Nazis used to encrypt their messages during World War II. In this way, the conflict was greatly reduced and many lives were saved.
But this was not his only contribution to science. Turing was also looking for an explanation for patterns in nature. He talked about things like zebra stripes, leopard spots or shark scales. However, today we know that magic circles can also be explained by what he called the reaction-diffusion system.
This established that two conditions must be met for an organism to form: diffusion of molecules in space and chemical reactions generated between them. Thus, there comes a time when the symmetry is broken, so that not uniform patterns are formed, but periodic patterns, like the stripes of a zebra or the plumage of birds.
Now, in the case of fairy circles, we are not talking about a living being, but about the connection of many of them (plants) with the soil. And the fact is that Turing also established that in order for this to happen, interaction of two diffusing substances, which this time are water and biomass. Both dissipate until they find an optimal behavior that generates a periodic pattern.
Therefore, neither mushrooms nor termites. And especially fairies. It seems clear that these famous circles are the result of the soil itself optimizing the few resources that reach it.
Source: Hiper Textual
