The trend with crop circles started with two old guys in England who figured out how to use some simple tools to quickly step out the patterns. The scored the best hoax for England since Piltdown Man but they couldn't have made the fairy circles in Namibia; there are millions of them. (Science Daily: Fairy circles of Namibia: New research helps scientists gain insight)
The question may come, ever so elegantly, as to who gives a crap about fuckin' fairy circles and the answer is probably there is hardly anyone but these researchers who does but they do a whole lot. That's the part which intrigues me in seeing their determination; they have just got to know.
This is a fairy ring in Namibia
Credit: School of Science
You can see the inside of the fairy circle is not the same as outside it so, right away, you know there are fairies about.
Numbering in the millions, the so-called fairy circles are in the eastern, interior margin of the coastal Namib Desert, stretching from southern Angola to northern South Africa. They range in size from about 12 feet to about 114 feet, consisting of bare patches of soil surrounded by rings of grass. The origins of the circles have long been debated by researchers.
There is more than solving a mystery at stake. Analysis on the formation, structure and growth of vegetation patterns and their interactions with Earth's water cycle can improve our understanding of important processes underlying the dynamics of water-limited ecosystems, said IUPUI researcher Lixin Wang.
- SD
The second paragraph shows there's a legitimate reason for the science and I was tempted to leave it out but Ithaka rules forbid doing that (i.e. if I distort the science then it's not science anymore).
The team's results provide support to the self-organization hypothesis of fairy circle formation.
Self-organization theory says that the circular vegetation pattern is created by competition for scarce water. It's believed that the bare patches percolate more rainfall and act as water reservoirs, which the grass along the edges of the circle can access.
A second major theory is that fairy circles are created and maintained by sand termites that clear vegetation in the area of their nests. By making the soil porous, it's believed, the termites establish permanent reservoirs of rainwater below the surface that sustain them and the surrounding plants.
- SD
Ed: stop playing it. What's the punchline?
The play is important since that shows how far they went to get the punchline.
The research team brought new equipment and research specialties to bear on the question of fairy circle formation as it conducted extensive measurements of infiltration rate, soil moisture, grass biometric and sediment grain-size distribution from multiple circles and spaces between the circles.
Water infiltration flow rates were measured inside and outside the circles, with very fast infiltration rates recorded within the inner portion of the circles. The faster infiltration rates were facilitated by coarser particle size inside the circles. The team also found the roots of grass around the circles were much larger on the inside of the grass ring compared to the outside.
- SD
This crew is dead serious about bringing some major fairy circle science to bear on the question.
Watson: where's the damn punchline?
"Our investigation provides new insights and experimental data on the ecohydrological processes associated with fairy circles."
With evidence in hand concerning the self-supporting theory, the team reached out to a termite expert to search for evidence of termites in and among the fairy circles where the study was conducted.
"There was no sign of sand termite activity at all," Wang said. "Our results seem to provide support to the self-organization theory of fairy circle formation attributed to scale-dependent biomass-water feedback loops," the researchers wrote in their paper.
- SD
There you have it. There was no sign of sand termites so self-organization takes it as the theory and that, of course, is the scientific way of saying fairies did it.
The question may come, ever so elegantly, as to who gives a crap about fuckin' fairy circles and the answer is probably there is hardly anyone but these researchers who does but they do a whole lot. That's the part which intrigues me in seeing their determination; they have just got to know.
This is a fairy ring in Namibia
Credit: School of Science
You can see the inside of the fairy circle is not the same as outside it so, right away, you know there are fairies about.
Numbering in the millions, the so-called fairy circles are in the eastern, interior margin of the coastal Namib Desert, stretching from southern Angola to northern South Africa. They range in size from about 12 feet to about 114 feet, consisting of bare patches of soil surrounded by rings of grass. The origins of the circles have long been debated by researchers.
There is more than solving a mystery at stake. Analysis on the formation, structure and growth of vegetation patterns and their interactions with Earth's water cycle can improve our understanding of important processes underlying the dynamics of water-limited ecosystems, said IUPUI researcher Lixin Wang.
- SD
The second paragraph shows there's a legitimate reason for the science and I was tempted to leave it out but Ithaka rules forbid doing that (i.e. if I distort the science then it's not science anymore).
The team's results provide support to the self-organization hypothesis of fairy circle formation.
Self-organization theory says that the circular vegetation pattern is created by competition for scarce water. It's believed that the bare patches percolate more rainfall and act as water reservoirs, which the grass along the edges of the circle can access.
A second major theory is that fairy circles are created and maintained by sand termites that clear vegetation in the area of their nests. By making the soil porous, it's believed, the termites establish permanent reservoirs of rainwater below the surface that sustain them and the surrounding plants.
- SD
Ed: stop playing it. What's the punchline?
The play is important since that shows how far they went to get the punchline.
The research team brought new equipment and research specialties to bear on the question of fairy circle formation as it conducted extensive measurements of infiltration rate, soil moisture, grass biometric and sediment grain-size distribution from multiple circles and spaces between the circles.
Water infiltration flow rates were measured inside and outside the circles, with very fast infiltration rates recorded within the inner portion of the circles. The faster infiltration rates were facilitated by coarser particle size inside the circles. The team also found the roots of grass around the circles were much larger on the inside of the grass ring compared to the outside.
- SD
This crew is dead serious about bringing some major fairy circle science to bear on the question.
Watson: where's the damn punchline?
"Our investigation provides new insights and experimental data on the ecohydrological processes associated with fairy circles."
With evidence in hand concerning the self-supporting theory, the team reached out to a termite expert to search for evidence of termites in and among the fairy circles where the study was conducted.
"There was no sign of sand termite activity at all," Wang said. "Our results seem to provide support to the self-organization theory of fairy circle formation attributed to scale-dependent biomass-water feedback loops," the researchers wrote in their paper.
- SD
There you have it. There was no sign of sand termites so self-organization takes it as the theory and that, of course, is the scientific way of saying fairies did it.
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