"Lovely circles" in the Namib desert can be modeled

"Lovely circles" (see Fairy circle) in the Namib desert (Fig. 1) recognized as one of the mysteries of our time. Why uniform vegetation cover appear in the bare spots? And the right to these bare spots were found in any one place, but no — they stretch for two thousand miles through Namibia from South Africa to Angola. Therefore, it is not an exotic phenomenon generated by the random coincidence of unique circumstances, but a manifestation of force, mandatory throughout the thousands of kilometres of territory.

Scientists have proposed a comprehensive model of the formation of the so-called "miraculous circles" in Namibia — the regular pattern of bare spots in the vegetation of the desert. This model considers the competition of the plants for moisture, which is a leading factor in arid climates, and the activity of termites, which destroy all the vegetation over their nests. The termites ' nest, as revealed in the course of the research model can be formed with a known spatial regularity, and thus vegetation cover over the nest also gets properly organized form. The addition of competitive relations between plants adds even more realism, explaining the formation of new circles and old growth, no bald spots in the conditions of damp climate, as well as the secondary irregularity in the distribution of herbaceous cover between the circles. This study draws the search for the causes of formation of such circles in a new direction, pointing to the need to examine unaccounted for still settings.

But science would not be science if the proposed solution would not have caused new issues and new disputes. One of them is whether the model is applicable to all similar phenomena, but apart from the Namibian and Australian "wonderful community" there is still heuveltje (Heuweltjie) in the Western Cape province of South Africa, "campos de murundus" in Brazil (see A. T. de Oliveira-Filho, 1992. The Vegetation of Brazilian 'Murundus'-the Island-Effect on the Plant Community), Hills Mima (Mima mounds) in North America.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»