Fairy circles NOT caused by termites

Magical Realist

Magical Realist

Valued Senior Member
Breaking news! So what causes these mysterious circles of barren ground? I suspect fairies..;)

"It looks like the long-accepted explanation that termites are the cause of fairy circles in the arid grasslands of Namibia in southern Africa may have been proven to be a fairy tale.

The term “fairy circles,” “fairy rings” and “elf circles” have traditionally been used to describe naturally occurring rings of mushrooms that can be as wide as 33 feet in diameter and, as expected, have a number of European folk tales to explain them. Scientists believe the ring of mushrooms is actually one large fungus under the soil. Folklore blames it on witches dancing or the devil using the circle for his milk churn.

The fairy circles in Namibia are a different kind. The interior of these are barren, but the perimeter is a growth of lush grass which holds it shape for years – small ones grow for an average of 24 years while larger ones, measuring up to 60 feet, have been seen for as long as 75 years. The generally accepted cause is not mystical – a study last year came to the conclusion that Psammotermes allocerusa, a species of sand termite, lived in the patches and ate the grass roots.

Stephan Getzin, of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany, recently completed a new study, published in the journal Ecography, that exterminates the termites. Using aerial views, his team mapped the circles and found the spatial distribution to be surprisingly regular and homogenous, patterns that those haphazard termites would never make. This is more likely to be caused by a competition by vegetation for scarce water and nutrients, which self-organizes into regularly-spaced patterns. Computer simulation of below-ground competition for resources confirmed this conclusion by generating nearly identical patterns.

Needless to say, the termites are disappointed and have filed formal complaints."---http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/05/termites-causing-african-fairy-circles-its-a-fairy-tale/


Fairy_circles_namibia.jpg
 
My layman's speculation is that these things start out as normal looking clumps of plants, scattered at intervals as is common with desert vegetation.

Then (here's the speculation) the plants exhaust something vital in the soil where they are located. So the center of the clump of vegetation dies while the clump's edges expand out into new and unexploited ground. That kind of dynamic should produce plants growing in slowly-expanding rings.

The fact that in the photograph the ground inside the rings looks more barren than the ground outside the rings might be evidence for something like that.

It's interesting that the background in the photo seems to be a more typical arid-lands short-grass with scattered shrubs ecological regime. In the foreground the soil appears to become redder and the rings suddenly appear. So perhaps the the soil is worse in the foreground and grass that grows happily in the background finds the foreground environment marginal at best and whatever fertility this soil initially has is very easily exhausted.
 
Yazata said:
My layman's speculation is that these things start out as normal looking clumps of plants, scattered at intervals as is common with desert vegitation.

Then (here's the speculation) the plants exhaust something vital in the soil where they are located. So the center of the clump of vegetation dies while the clump's edges expand out into new and unexploited ground. That kind of dynamic should produce plants growing in slowly-expanding rings.

The fact that in the photograph the ground inside the rings looks more barren than the ground outside the rings might be evidence for something like that.
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That sounds plausible. The tufted ring of vegetation expanding outward on the circumference would certainly suggest that. I wonder if that's as big as the rings get. Also, a study of the rings growing from small to large would be good evidence of this.
 
It's obviously following divergence to an extent, the plants could themselves come from the same root systems, the reason for the circular shape is likely due to the plants growing outwards but not being able to sustain volume, so some of the plant dies off as while the rest is maintained as the edge of a ring. During the mornings it's likely that the morning due clings to the plants themselves generating the needed moisture to maintain the plants survival, this would suggest the volume and even the shape (Consider the plants growth creates a "crater depression" which would reduce raindrop splashes escaping the circle.) is an attempt to balance ways of maintaining moisture so the plant doesn't die.

I'd imply there is likely a "golden number" in regards to the size at which the circles would grow due to the constraints on how much moisture can be collected by this array.

Incidentally soil quality could be pretty bad, consider the sun beating down on it during the day. It's probably a red clay, it's possible water from the foothills is what aids the growth to the "mostly shaded side" while the fore image is actually where the sunshine hits for most of the day.
 
This thread makes no sense.
If Fairy Rings were caused by termites, they would be called Termite Rings.
 
acoustic standing wave emitting bacteria? or emit acoustics reacting to something in soil or enzymic self patternized expression from a chemical reaction?,similar to cymatics reacting to noises in the area on a longer time scale?PCD in bacteria in a chain reaction spreading outward?

your guess is as good as mine..
 
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Intersect said:
acoustic standing wave emitting bacteria? or emit acoustics reacting to something in soil or enzymic self patternized expression from a chemical reaction?,similar to cymatics reacting to noises in the area on a longer time scale?PCD in bacteria in a chain reaction spreading outward?

your guess is as good as mine..
Click to expand...

Paul Stamets has written that mushrooms create fairy rings.
 
Proof that Australia has Fairies too!

(Hah! Take that, Paddoboy!)

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/1...y-circles-appearing-in-australian-outback.htm

Namibia-style "fairy circles" have been discovered in a remote region of Western Australia.

The photos of these look different to me from the Namibian ones. In Namibia, the circles are rings of vegetation, with very barren areas inside the ring and less barren, but still barren areas outside. In Australia, they look like very barren circles scattered around a plain of more uniform desert grass. The Australian examples aren't rings separated by barren areas.

So... I'm not entirely convinced that the Australian ones and the Namibian ones have the same cause.

031416_sm_fairy-circle-main_free.jpg
 
Yazata said:
Proof that Australia has Fairies too!

(Hah! Take that, Paddoboy!)

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/1...y-circles-appearing-in-australian-outback.htm

Namibia-style "fairy circles" have been discovered in a remote region of Western Australia.

The photos of these look different to me from the Namibian ones. In Namibia, the circles are rings of vegetation, with very barren areas inside the ring and less barren, but still barren areas outside. In Australia, they look like very barren circles scattered around a plain of more uniform desert grass. The Australian examples aren't rings separated by barren areas.

So... I'm not entirely convinced that the Australian ones and the Namibian ones have the same cause.
Click to expand...

This is the hypothesised explanation in temperate climates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_ring

So a side effect of subsoil fungal growth. Whether this makes any sense in an arid region, I do not know.
 
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