Fairy Circles (Round Patches Of Bare Earth In Desert / Scrubland)

[Anonymous]

BBC News Online: Enigma of Namibia's 'fairy circles'
Wednesday, 31 March, 2004

South African botanists say they have failed to explain the mysterious round patches of bare sandy soil found in grassland on Namibia's coastal fringe.

They looked into possible causes of the "fairy circles" - radioactive soil, toxic proteins left by poisonous plants, and termites eating the seeds.

But tests failed to support any of these theories for the rings which are 2-10 metres in diameter.

For now, they say, they are left with "fairies" to explain the phenomenon.

Trenches

Lead scientist Gretel van Rooyen, is now exploring the theory that, somehow, toxic elements are deposited in the shape of the circle, making it impossible for plant life to get established there, AFP news agency reported.

"But even if we find them, how they came there is the next problem - for the moment, we're left with the fairies," Ms van Rooyen, a botanist from University of Pretoria said.

Tests of soil samples taken from "fairy circles" found all to be negative for radioactivity and desert plants were successfully grown in the lab on soil on which milk bushes had grown.

As for the termites, the team dug trenches up to two metres deep in and around the circles, but found no sign of these insects or their nests.

Fairy circles occur in a broken belt in the pro-Namib region, from southern Angola to the Orange River in South Africa and have become so famous that they are included in visitors' tours.

Maybe this one should really be in 'Earth Mysteries'?

 

[tuckeg]

I spent 2.5 months last summer in an area of Namibia where the circles are everywhere. They are so noticeable that on my first drive thru the area I asked the person I was with what they were. While I was there I was told that a group of biologists was going to come out with a report this year that would "prove" they were caused by termites who were killing the grass by eating its roots in order to maintain the correct level of moisture in their nests. So I am suprised to see this report. I have to say that I was skeptical of the termite theory because in a few places where the ground was covered with rocks, there were roughly circular areas that were devoid of rocks. Not something termites are capable of doing (unless they are immigrants from Easter Island). I'll be going back in June for 2 months and may try to bring back some soil for our chemistry department to test.

 

[headnspace]

Didn't they already know that these are fungi?

I thought that fairy rings were conclusively found to be fungi. (saw it on TV, I think). The scientists researched fairy rings in the UK or US from what I remember. The fungus would start in a small circle, and then as it "fed" on the surrounding soil/roots, it would spread. The edge of the fungus would give the grass growing above it a deeper green, and then after the fungus moved on, the grass would be dryer. (don't remember the reasons, just the observations). Some of these rings would break when hitting a rock, or other natural obstacle, and some were found that were quite large, nearly the size of a football field. (or soccer field )

Fairy rings may be fungus in moist environments, so I would think it would be the same in Namibia. (reading "grassland" as the dry area, if I"m wrong, please correct me)

I am surprised that the team did not even research this possibility when they went to research the fairy rings.

Radioactivity, toxic proteins and bugs were tested. What about testing for other animals or plants? These tests seemed to be rather narrow in my opinion. They limited the plant tests to the soil in the middle of the circle (which would no longer have the fungus)

But why go through even more tests? It's probably just fairies.
:blissed:

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Still unexplained (allegedly):

'Fairy circles' of Africa baffle scientists

(Filed: 10/05/2004)


Twenty-five years of research fail to find the cause of a mysterious natural phenomenon, reports Tim Butcher at Wolwedans Camp

One of Africa's most mysterious natural phenomena still cannot be explained despite 25 years of research, scientists admitted yesterday.



Rings known as "fairy circles" that pockmark vast areas of desert in Namibia and South Africa have baffled botanists from the University of Pretoria and the Polytechnic of Namibia.

They have ruled out termite activity, poisoning from toxic indigenous plants, contamination from radioactive minerals and even ostrich dust baths as possible causes.

"At this stage I suppose we could say that fairies are as good an explanation as any," Gretel van Rooyen, professor of botany at Pretoria, told The Telegraph.

The findings will come as a relief to the region's bushmen who have traditionally attributed magical, spiritual powers to these desert rings.

Some tribes say each marks the grave of a bushman killed in clashes with colonialists, both black and white, who over the centuries have wiped out their hunter-gatherer, nomadic lifestyle.

And there is something other-worldly about the circles at Wolwedans desert camp in Namibia, perhaps the best place to see the phenomenon. The symmetrical divots in the sand stretch as far as the eye can see across vast, open plains like a giant terrestrial form of chickenpox or, as one Austrian holidaymaker put it, like splash marks from giant raindrops.

Such figurative thoughts were far from the minds of Prof van Rooyen and her team when they began to analyse the circles, which are to be found about 100 miles inland, in a band stretching 1,500 miles south from Angola. The territory is among the most remote and inhospitable on the planet which may explain why so little scientific research had been done on the rings.

In 1978 a long-term project was started when researchers hammered metal stakes into the centre of numerous circles. It had always been assumed the circles moved and the stakes would show how far and in what direction.

When the researchers eventually returned to the test circles after 22 years, they found they had not moved an inch.

"That showed these things are not dynamic and so we then focused on what characteristics of the desert soil might explain less growth in some places and good growth in others," Prof van Rooyen said.

"But one by one we tested the theories and one by one they were disproved."

Received wisdom was that termites caused the circles, foraging from underground nests the same distance and keeping a patch of desert clear of any new growth.

But the scientists showed that the right foraging habits of the only termites in the region did not fit this theory.

Samples of soil from the circles were then taken back to Pretoria for analysis. "We did all the basic soil tests for nutrients and minerals but found no explanation," Prof van Rooyen said.

The findings of her team's research was published in a 19-page article in The Journal of Arid Environments.

"What we need to do now is more research on the detailed breakdown of that soil using a mass spectrometer to find out what is different about that soil, she said.

"Until that research is completed in a few more years, the fairies remain the best explanation for this African quirk of nature."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...rc10.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/10/ixworld.html

Reference:

M. W. van Rooyen , G. K. Theron , N. van Rooyen , W. J. Jankowitz and W. S. Matthews (2004) Mysterious circles in the Namib Desert: review of hypotheses on their origin. Journal of Arid Environments. 57 (4). 467-485.

Abstract

Circular, slightly concave depressions, devoid of vegetation and often surrounded by a fringe of tall grasses occur in a broken belt in the pro-Namib zone of the west coast of southern Africa. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of these so-called fairy circles. The most important of these relate to areas of localized radioactivity; termite activity; or allelopathic compounds released by dead Euphorbia damarana plants. No evidence of increased radioactivity could be detected in soil samples collected from these sites. Although termites occur at these localities no evidence was found to link termite activity directly to the formation of barren patches. Bioassays conducted on soil collected from the centre of the barren patch clearly demonstrated an inhibition of plant growth, while soil collected from the edge of the barren patch had a stimulatory effect on plant growth. No indication of growth inhibition was found in soil collected beneath E. damarana plants. At this stage none of the proposed hypotheses can satisfactorily explain the origin of the fairy circles.

Author Keywords: Author Keywords: Allelopathy; Fairy circles; Namib; Radioactivity; Spatial vegetation pattern; Termites

I'll have to grab a copy of that later.

Emps

 

[gordonrutter]

The fungal origin of fairy rings has been known about since the late 1700's. These superficially look similar but they are not fungal in origin - this has been checked for and ruled out.

Gordon

 

[tuckeg]

The Wolwedans camp mentioned in the article is about 20 miles south of where I'll be (Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge) so I guess I will be in the heart of fairy circle land. I will definitely bring back some soil for analysis.

 

[ArthurASCII]

I will definitely bring back some soil for analysis.

Please consider the legal and moral implications before bringing soil into the UK.

It would be most irresponsible to import anything that might contain unknown organisms.

I'm sure that the Namibian authorities are quite capable of carrying out their own tests, and you would probably only be repeating work that has already been done.

 

[Anonymous]

My god- yes; be careful- remember the New Zealand Flatworm, accidentally introduced into the UK in potted plant soil

http://www.hdra.org.uk/factsheets/pc21.htm

and the vine weevil- accidentally introduced into my garden from some bastard garden centre...

best not risk it eh?

 

[tuckeg]

Arthur ASCII said:

"Please consider the legal and moral implications before bringing soil into the UK.

It would be most irresponsible to import anything that might contain unknown organisms.

I'm sure that the Namibian authorities are quite capable of carrying out their own tests, and you would probably only be repeating work that has already been done."

Well Aurthur, 0 for 3:

1. I am not from the UK.
2. Every visitor who has walked on the ground in this area carries the same organisms on their shoes when they return to their home countries, including those from the UK.
3. You clearly know nothing about the state of scientific research in Namibia. If you read the article, you would notice the research was carried out in South Africa, not Namibia. There was a reason for that.

 

[ArthurASCII]

Arthur ASCII said:

"Please consider the legal and moral implications before bringing soil into the UK.

It would be most irresponsible to import anything that might contain unknown organisms.

I'm sure that the Namibian authorities are quite capable of carrying out their own tests, and you would probably only be repeating work that has already been done."

Well Aurthur, 0 for 3:

1. I am not from the UK.
2. Every visitor who has walked on the ground in this area carries the same organisms on their shoes when they return to their home countries, including those from the UK.
3. You clearly know nothing about the state of scientific research in Namibia. If you read the article, you would notice the research was carried out in South Africa, not Namibia. There was a reason for that.

Silly me.

1. I had to make a guess as there was no indication in your profile (good old "probability" - never works when you need it).

2. I take it you'll be scraping your shoes for samples when you get home then, or that your country of origin has no laws against the import of foreign (possibly contaminated) soil into the country (most do). Thank god you won't be traipsing it around the U.K.

3. I'm afraid that I'll have to take your word that there are no botanists in Namibia capable of carrying out tests on soil samples. There was certainly nothing in the article to indicate that the South African team were only doing what Namibians could not.

Please consider Eburacum45s point.

I still believe my concerns are valid.

 

[Anonymous]

My god- yes; be careful- remember the New Zealand Flatworm, accidentally introduced into the UK in potted plant soil

http://www.hdra.org.uk/factsheets/pc21.htm

and the vine weevil- accidentally introduced into my garden from some bastard garden centre...

best not risk it eh?

There's an alarming amount of dangerous spiders (and various other insects) that make it into this country thanks to banana imports (and various other fruit though I myself can only gaurantee they definitely arrive in bananas) brought to various highstreet supermarkets to this very day regardless of laws and preventative procedures that have been enforced and practised supposedly for years.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I've done fieldwork in North Africa and we thought nothing of bringing back large sacks of soil and rocks, etc. - you clearly have to be careful and dispose of the samples properly but it would scupper a vast amount of geological and archaeological fieldwork in the foot if we couldn't bring samples back from foreign climes to work with.

Emps

 

[millomite]

Namibia's Fairy Circles

I am not sure if this is somewhere else in the Message Boards but I'm sure it will be moved if it is. The following story plus photos appeared in the Telegraph this week and is fascinating. I fanyone can find the photos please post them:

Namibia’s fairy circles leave scientists flummoxed

Attempts by South African botanists to explain “fairy circles” in Namibia — bizarre outlines in the grass, somewhat akin to Britain’s bogus crop circles — have drawn a complete blank, New Scientist reports.

The circles comprise innumerable discs of completely bare sandy soil, ranging from two to 10 metres (seven to 25 feet) across, found in grass on Namibia’s coastal fringe.

Over the past three decades, scientists have wrangled over how the shapes are formed.

There are three main theories: radioactive soil, which prevents plants from growing; toxic proteins left in the soil by a poisonous plant called the milkbush; and termite colonies that mop all the seeds, leaving nothing left to grow.

Each of these explanations has now been examined at length and then discarded, in a study by South African researchers.

Tests of soil samples taken from “fairy circles” found all to be negative for radioactivity, and desert plants were successfully grown in the lab on soil on which milkbushes had grown.

As for the termites, the team dug trenches up to two metres (seven feet) deep in and around the circles, but found no sign of these insects or their nests, present or past.

Lead scientist Gretel van Rooyen, a botanist at the University of Pretoria, is now exploring the theory that, somehow, toxic elements are deposited in the shape of the circle, making it impossible for plant life to get established there.

“But even if we find them, how they came there is the next problem,” New Scientist quotes her as saying in next Saturday’s issue.

For the moment, she admits wryly, “we’re left with the fairies”.

Fairy circles occur in a broken belt in the pro-Namib region, from southern Angola to the Orange River in South Africa and have become so famous that they are included in visitors’ tours. —AFP

Original source unknown. This article is known to have been published in Pakistan's Daily Times.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The Namibian 'fairy circles' are back in the news. Photos can be accessed at the cited source URL.

Mysterious African 'Fairy Circles' Stump Scientists

By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer | LiveScience.com


In the sandy desert grasslands of Namibia in southern Africa, mysterious bare spots known as "fairy circles" will form and then disappear years later for no reason anyone can determine. A new look at these strange patterns doesn't solve the wistful mystery but at least reveals that the largest of the circles can linger for a lifetime.

Small fairy circles stick around an average of 24 years, while larger ones can exist as long as 75 years, according to research detailed today (June 27) in the journal PLoS ONE. Still, the study sheds little light on why the circles form, persist and then vanish into the landscape after decades.

"The why question is very difficult," said study researcher Walter Tschinkel, a biologist at Florida State University. "There are a number of hypotheses on the table, and the evidence for none of them is convincing."

Tschinkel grew interested in fairy circles during a 2005 safari to NamibRand Nature Reserve in southwest Namibia, in the Namib Desert. It was his first experience with the round clearings, tens of thousands of which expose the red sandy soil in the area. A short time after the circles form, a tall ring of grass grows around the border, highlighting the bare area.

Few researchers have studied fairy circles, in part because of their remoteness, 111 miles (180 km) from the nearest village. It's an arid landscape where springbok, ostriches, leopards and other large animals roam, Tschinkel told LIveScience.

"It's like dying and going to heaven if you like remote, beautiful desert places," he said.

At first glance, Tschinkel assumed the circles marked underground nests of harvester termites. But digs have shown no evidence of termite nests under fairy circles. Other explanations, such as differences in soil nutrients or the death of seedlings by toxic vapors from the ground, have likewise failed to hold up to study.

In fact, little was known even about the life cycle of the circles, Tschinkel said. With the help of the nature reserve's staff, satellite images and aerial photos, he set out to change that. By comparing satellite images from 2004 and 2008, he found that circles are quite stable, popping up at nearly their full size, or growing quickly to full size once they get started. The smallest are about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter, while the largest can be almost 40 feet (12 m) across. Winds scour the bare areas of soil, turning them into slight depressions. Eventually plants move back in, recolonizing the circles and leaving only slightly indented "ghost circles" behind. [Gallery: Aerial Photos Reveal Mysterious Stone Structures]
Assuming that the overall number of fairy circles on the landscape is fairly steady, Tschinkel used the satellite photos to look at how quickly the circles go from birth to maturity to revegetation. That yielded rough estimates of the circles' life spans. Most probably exist for 30 to 60 years, Tschinkel said.

Persisting mystery

Tschinkel was able to bolster these estimates thanks to a fundraising effort by the Namib Rand Nature Reserve, which sells sponsorships to fairy circles. The sponsored circles are marked with a ceramic plate, and their GPS coordinates are recorded. Over the 10 years of the sponsorship program, staff members have checked on the status of the sold circles. Their data yielded similar age ranges for fairy circles as the satellite images did, Tschinkel found.

He also determined that the circles form only on sandy soil with minimal stoniness, and that they don't form on shifting dunes or alluvial fans, where sands are deposited by water.

Some of Tschinkel's experiments are still ongoing, but so far, they've generated no leads on the circles' origins. Tschinkel suspects the circles are the product of some form of natural self-organization by plants.

"There are some mathematical models that are based on the idea that plants can withdraw resources toward themselves, which has a positive feedback on plant growth where they're located, but it has a negative effect on plants at a greater distance," he said.

Computer models based on this math can generate landscapes that look a bit like the fairy circle fields of Namibia, he said. But even if that hypothesis is on the right track, it doesn't explain how the plants are creating this pattern, not when hoarding soil nutrients and some other possible factors have already been ruled out.

With few people studying the circles — and no funding for chasing down the mysteries of the landscape of southern Africa — Tschinkel said the fairy circles will likely remain an enigma.

"I'm not too worried that this mystery is going to be solved anytime soon," he said. And the persistence of the mystery makes it ever more intriguing.
"That's science, isn't it?" Tschinkel said. "If you knew the answer ahead of time, it wouldn't be much fun."

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-africa ... 35915.html

 

[Zilch5]

Mysterious fairy circles demystified: it's termites

They appear in the desert in southwest Africa and persist for decades: so-called fairy circles, or puzzling rings of grass with a barren center.

Now a new study, published in the US journal "Science," purports to end the enigma and explain just what is going on: it's the work of termites.

The fairy circles, which can stretch up to around 50 feet (15 meters) in diameter, are especially common in Namibia, where the indigenous Himba people attribute them to divine intervention.

Among scientists, the termite theory had been proposed previously but put aside for a lack of evidence.

But botanist Norbert Juergens of Germany's University of Hamburg plunged into the investigation and has offered convincing evidence that the critters behind fairy circles are likely a particular termite species called Psammotermes.

By studying a strip of desert 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) long, stretching from mid-Angola down to northern South Africa, Juergens determined that these termites were the only organisms consistently present when the circles were in the earliest stages of forming.

The researcher observed that the termites feed off the roots of perennial grasses, effectively wiping out the plant life nearby.

But the bare patch is then able to hold on to moisture better, because the rain water is not used and evaporated by plants. That helps the termites -- and the vegetation around the edge of the circle -- thrive, even during the dry season.

The result is an ecosystem, engineered by termites, transformed from a desert into a grassland, Juergens explained.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2013 ... s-termites

 

[EnolaGaia]

... And now the termite theory is being disputed ...

Mysterious 'Fairy Circles' Not Explained by Termites, Study Suggests

"Fairy circles" that form in the arid grasslands of Namibia have baffled scientists for decades. In the latest attempt to explain the cause of these mysterious circular patches, a group of researchers turned to aerial images.

From the aerial images, the scientists discovered that fairy circles are distributed in surprisingly regular patterns, which might rule out the popular theory that termites are the creators.

"The occurrence of such patterning in nature is rather unusual," study researcher Stephan Getzin, of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany, said in a statement. "There must be particularly strong regulating forces at work." [Image Gallery: Amazing 'Fairy Circles' of the Namib Desert]

Fairy circles are barren patches, typically surrounded by a ring of thriving vegetation. They can grow to be 65 feet (20 meters) in diameter and can linger for as long as 75 years.

For the past several years, scientists have offered up a variety of hypotheses for why these rings form in the arid grasslands transitioning into the Namib Desert. Their explanations have ranged from grass-killing seeps of hydrocarbons to carnivorous ants to termite feeding patterns.

One biologist recently conducted a census of organisms at fairy circles. His results, detailed in the journal Science last year, revealed a species of sand termite, Psammotermes allocerus, lived at the majority of patches. He concluded that the insects seemed to be feeding on the grass roots, creating the characteristic rings.

Getzin and his colleagues, however, say termites are typically distributed in irregular clusters in the wild; they argue that the insects couldn't create patterns as consistent as the ones they observed in their aerial photos.

"There is, up to now, not one single piece of evidence demonstrating that social insects are capable of creating homogenously distributed structures on such a large scale," Getzin said in a statement.

Getzin and colleagues think the most convincing explanation for fairy rings is that the grass grows in self-regulating patterns to deal with competition for water.

The researchers compared the situation to growth trends in forests. In a young forest, plants tend to grow at a relatively close range to one another. But over the years, vegetation thins in a self-regulating process so that mature trees have enough space and resources, the researchers said. Resource competition may similarly drive a self-organized formation of fairy circles.

The findings were detailed in the journal Ecography.

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-fairy- ... 07886.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

... And the recognition of quite similar circles in Australia is serving to promote interest in a theory emphasizing self-organized patterns resulting from limited water availability ...

Mysterious Fairy Circles Have Been Found in Western Australia

Once thought to exist only in Namibia, circles spotted 6,200 miles away are helping sort out how these odd features form

Whimsically dubbed fairy circles, the strange shapes had only been spotted in Namibia—until now. This week scientists report their appearance roughly 6,200 miles away in the desolate outback of Western Australia. The discovery is already helping scientists tease through the mystery behind these natural patterns.

Scientists from many fields have previously tackled the perplexing question using mathematics, biology, ecology and entomology. Recently the debate has homed in on two theories: Either termites killed rings of plants by munching on their roots, or the grass self-organized to best take advantage of resources in the harsh desert landscape.

The discovery of fairy circles in Australia, described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, now has the team leaning strongly towards the answer of self-organization. ...

Full Story: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...-have-been-found-western-australia-180958407/

 

[Eric Hoffman]

The first so-called fairy circles – mysterious bald patches within grasslands – found outside Namibia popped up in Australia. Where did they come from?

- By Molly Jackson, Staff MARCH 15, 2016
"Fairy circles," the distinctive bald spots dotting the Namibian grasslands, were once mysterious not only for their striking patterns, but their exclusivity: no other landscape in the world seemed to have the same six-sided honeycombs.
But more than 6,200 miles away, a new discovery in the Australian outback has helped researchers crack the code, supporting the theory that sparse grasses actually organize themselves into the unusual structures to deal with their dry environment.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environmen...-spotted-in-Australia.-How-did-they-get-there

 

[EnolaGaia]

... And most recently a third view has emerged that competitive interactions among both the termites and the plants are the explanation for Namibia's fairy circles, based in part on the broader patterns exhibited by entire populations of the circles ...

Fishing for Clues to Solve Namibia’s Fairy Circle Mystery

... Although the name fairy circles sounds sweet and peaceful, there is passionate scientific disagreement over how they arise, and the two prevailing hypotheses have become adversaries in the dispute.

One side suggests that termites, locked in never-ending competition with neighboring colonies, create the circles as they fight for dominance and resources. The other says that perpetually thirsty plants simultaneously assist and compete with their neighbors’ roots, causing the vegetation to “self-organize” into the patterns.

The new study suggests that termites and plants may be jointly responsible for forming fairy circle landscapes in Namibia. And it has received mixed reviews from scientists entrenched in the dispute. ...

SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/...-circle-mystery.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

 

[EnolaGaia]

This shorter follow-on article on LiveScience offers a slightly different spin on the recently-reported research and focuses more on explaining the main point in simple terms:

http://www.livescience.com/57593-desert-fairy-circles-explained-by-math.html

 

[Kingsize Wombat]

The Termite theory is back! Or is it? Inside the Fairy Circle controversy with German naturalist Norbert Jürgens.

Visiting the Mysterious Fairy Circles of the Namib Desert

The patches are Namibia’s enigmatic fairy circles, and for decades they have drawn visitors, including our convoy, into the desert. In recent years, Jürgens and other researchers have argued bitterly over the how and why of fairy circles, disagreeing over data and theory in person and across the pages of the world’s preeminent journals.

Since the 1970s, scientists have spitballed theories about the origin of fairy circles. The bare patches could be caused by chemical compounds emitted by Euphorbia damarana, a toxic bush. Or they could be the feeding grounds of a ravenous termite called Hodotermes mossambicus. Maybe they’re fossil termite nests; maybe the vegetation within them was killed by naturally-occurring radiation, or hydrocarbon seepage. And, I mean, there are always UFOs.

And in 2016, Stephan Getzin and his colleagues announced the discovery of another fairy circle–esque, ostensibly termite-free pattern about 6,000 miles away from the Namib, in the Australian outback. That announcement spawned its own ongoing sub-feud, in which Australian scientists argued that the bare patches in the outback had been previously documented and are made by termites, a charge that the self-organizers then rebutted ... and so on.

Last year, seemingly out of nowhere, a third group joined the fairy-circle fray. In the journal Nature, a team including Princeton ecologists Rob Pringle and Corina Tarnita published a lopsided compromise: Both sides were right, they said. But one side was more right.

Read the whole shebang here: https://www.theatlantic.com/science...ous-fairy-circles-of-the-namib-desert/560639/

 

[Tribble]

A number of large circles reputed to be the home of various magical beings have appeared on sloping Norfolk grassland.

The rings on farmland at Caistor St Edmund, which measure up to 4m (14ft) in diameter, have long been part of folklore with their arrival linked to dragons, dancing fairy folk or the site of an underground fairy village.

A more scientific explanation reveals they are created by fungus that develops underground in a circular formation and slowly gathers nutrients which affect the grass above.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-engl...giant-fairy-rings-appear-in-norfolk-landscape

 

[ramonmercado]

A number of large circles reputed to be the home of various magical beings have appeared on sloping Norfolk grassland.

The rings on farmland at Caistor St Edmund, which measure up to 4m (14ft) in diameter, have long been part of folklore with their arrival linked to dragons, dancing fairy folk or the site of an underground fairy village.

A more scientific explanation reveals they are created by fungus that develops underground in a circular formation and slowly gathers nutrients which affect the grass above.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-engl...giant-fairy-rings-appear-in-norfolk-landscape

NfN.

 

[Tribble]

NfN.

 

[GNC]

It can be both!

 

[EnolaGaia]

This just in ...

The longstanding termite theory seems to be losing ground ...

Barren Desert 'Fairy Circles' Caused by … Rain?
Unusual bare circles in the grasslands of Australia and the Namib Desert called "fairy circles" aren't the work of termites, new research suggests.

Fairy circles are a long-standing mystery. Some scientists have argued that they mark termite nests or are the result of plants competing for scarce resources. Some say that a combination of termite and plant activity resulted in the odd splotches. But now, a new study suggests that the circles aren't the result of anything living. Rather, they're a result of weathering caused by heavy rainfall and evaporation.

Termites sometimes nest within fairy circles, study researcher Stephan Getzin of the University of Göttingen in Germany said in a statement. But there is no evidence that the termites are actually creating the bare patches. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/64856-desert-fairy-circles-rain.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

An update, and perhaps a breakthrough ... Field research in western Australia has finally provided empirical evidence supporting the notion that desert fairy circles are the result of a Turing pattern.

Mysterious Circles in The Desert Explained by Alan Turing Theory From 70 Years Ago

It was 1952, and Alan Turing was about to reshape humanity's understanding of biology.

In a landmark paper, the English mathematician introduced what became known as the Turing pattern – the notion that the dynamics of certain uniform systems could give rise to stable patterns when disturbed.

Such 'order from disturbance' has become the theoretical basis for all sorts of strange, repeated motifs seen in the natural world.

It was a good theory. So good, in fact, that decades later, scientists are still discovering stunning examples of it in unusual and exotic places: real-world Turing patterns brought to life in locales that Turing himself never had a chance to see.

The latest incarnation of this theoretical phenomenon turns out to be fairy circles – mysterious formations of desert grass that grow around distinctly circular patches of arid soil, first documented in the Namib desert of southern Africa. ...

Explanations for their existence range from the mythical to the mundane, and as recently as a few years ago, their origins were still being debated. Early on, one view held that the strange circles were due to termite activity under the African soil – but the subsequent discovery of fairy circles in the Australian outback complicated the narrative, demonstrating fairy circles could be found with no firm link to termites.

Alternatively, scientists have proposed that fairy circles are the result of plants arranging themselves to make the most of limited water resources in a harsh, arid environment.

It sounds plausible, and if true, would also happen to be another naturally occurring example of a Turing pattern. But there's not a lot of empirical evidence to actually support the hypothesis, researchers say, because the kinds of physicists who tend to model the Turing dynamics of these systems rarely end up also conducting field work in the desert in support of their ideas.

"There is a strong imbalance between the theoretical vegetation models, their a priori assumptions and the scarcity of empirical proof that the modelled processes are correct from an ecological point of view," a team led by ecologist Stephan Getzin from the University of Göttingen in Germany explains in a new paper.

To bridge that gap, Getzin and fellow researchers walked the walk, using drones equipped with multispectral cameras to survey fairy circles from overhead near the mining town of Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. ...

Analysing the spatial separation of both high- and low-vitality grasses, and using moisture sensors to check readings at the ground, the team found that healthier, high‐vitality grasses were systematically more strongly associated with fairy circles than low‐vitality grasses.

In other words, for the first time, we have empirical data to suggest that fairy circles are a match for Turing's decades-old theory.

"The intriguing thing is that the grasses are actively engineering their own environment by forming symmetrically spaced gap patterns," Getzin says.

"The vegetation benefits from the additional runoff water provided by the large fairy circles, and so keeps the arid ecosystem functional even in very harsh, dry conditions. Without the self-organisation of the grasses, this area would likely become desert, dominated by bare soil." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/myster...ained-by-alan-turing-theory-from-70-years-ago

 

[Aurora Newman]

The fungal origin of fairy rings has been known about since the late 1700's. These superficially look similar but they are not fungal in origin - this has been checked for and ruled out.

Gordon

some cultures have rocks as fairy circles.

 

[Frideswide]

some cultures have rocks as fairy circles.

please can you tell us more?

 

[Aurora Newman]

please can you tell us more?

Ok will see if I have wrote anything in my dairies. But I've just always known Fairies hang around rocks. Maybe it's just the way I've been brought up.