Discovery of fairy circles in Australia supports self-organization theory
Abstract
Pattern-formation theory predicts that vegetation gap patterns, such as the fairy circles of Namibia, emerge through the action of pattern-forming biomass-water feedbacks and that such patterns should be found elsewhere in water-limited systems around the world. We report here the exciting discovery of fairy-circle patterns in the remote outback of Australia. Using fieldwork, remote sensing, spatial pattern analysis, mathematical modeling, and pattern-formation theory we show that the Australian gap patterns share with their Namibian counterparts the same characteristics but are driven by a different biomass-water feedback. These observations are in line with a central universality principle of pattern-formation theory and support the applicability of this theory to wider contexts of spatial self-organization in ecology.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- March 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1522130113
- Bibcode:
- 2016PNAS..113.3551G
- Keywords:
-
- drylands;
- spatial pattern;
- Triodia grass;
- Turing instability;
- vegetation gap;
- Biological Sciences,Ecology,Applied Physical Sciences,Physical Sciences