| Content Provider |
World Health Organization (WHO)-Global Index Medicus |
| Author |
Postle, Anthony C. Wiegand, Thorsten Tzuk, Omer Yizhaq, Hezi Bell, Bronwyn Zelnik, Yuval R. Wiegand, Kerstin Katra, Itzhak Meron, Ehud Erickson, Todd E. Getzin, Stephan |
| Spatial Coverage |
Western Australia |
| Description |
Author Affiliation: Getzin S ( Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, 04318 Leipzig, Germany); Yizhaq H ( Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus 84990, Israel); Bell B ( Environmental Management, Rio Tinto, Perth, WA 6000, Australia); Erickson TE ( School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia); Postle AC ( P.O. Box 5473, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia); Katra I ( Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel); Tzuk O ( Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel); Zelnik YR ( Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus 84990, Israel); Wiegand K ( Department of Ecosystem Modelling, University of Goettingen, 37077 Goettingen, Germany); Wiegand T ( Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, 04318 Leipzig, Germany); Meron E ( Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus 84990, Israel); |
| Abstract |
Vegetation gap patterns in arid grasslands, such as the 'fairy circles' of Namibia, are one of nature's greatest mysteries and subject to a lively debate on their origin. They are characterized by small-scale hexagonal ordering of circular bare-soil gaps that persists uniformly in the landscape scale to form a homogeneous distribution. Pattern-formation theory predicts that such highly ordered gap patterns should be found also in other water-limited systems across the globe, even if the mechanisms of their formation are different. Here we report that so far unknown fairy circles with the same spatial structure exist 10,000 km away from Namibia in the remote outback of Australia. Combining fieldwork, remote sensing, spatial pattern analysis, and process-based mathematical modeling, we demonstrate that these patterns emerge by self-organization, with no correlation with termite activity; the driving mechanism is a positive biomass-water feedback associated with water runoff and biomass-dependent infiltration rates. The remarkable match between the patterns of Australian and Namibian fairy circles and model results indicate that both patterns emerge from a nonuniform stationary instability, supporting a central universality principle of pattern-formation theory. Applied to the context of dryland vegetation, this principle predicts that different systems that go through the same instability type will show similar vegetation patterns even if the feedback mechanisms and resulting soil-water distributions are different, as we indeed found by comparing the Australian and the Namibian fairy-circle ecosystems. These results suggest that biomass-water feedbacks and resultant vegetation gap patterns are likely more common in remote drylands than is currently known. |
| ISSN |
00278424 |
| e-ISSN |
10916490 |
| Journal |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Issue Number |
13 |
| Volume Number |
113 |
| Language |
English |
| Publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
| Publisher Date |
2016-04-01 |
| Publisher Place |
United States |
| Access Restriction |
Open |
| Subject Keyword |
Models, Biological Plant Development Poaceae Growth & Development Biomass Feedback, Physiological Namibia Western Australia Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Multidisciplinary |
| Content Type |
Text |
| Resource Type |
Article |
| Subject |
Multidisciplinary |
