Scientists find origin of strange ‘fairy circles’ spotted in Australia

‘Fairy circles’ have been baffling researchers since a long time. Until now, researchers were trying to understand the scattering and patterns of Africa’s puzzling circles, but now Australia's outback has revealed some of these strange and barren patches.

The mysterious fairy circles were first spotted by scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). They noticed the dots on earth’s surface in pictures taken near Newman, Australia. The regularly-patterned circles were similar to barren patches previously spotted in Africa.

The surprising and interesting thing about the dots was that they were spread over a vast area with great regularity, said Stephan Getzin, an expert at the UFZ and lead researcher of the new findings.

Different people have different opinions about the fairy circles. Some researchers think that the puzzling patches are caused by sparse grasses that organize themselves in such manners, while others have a hunch that hungry ants or termites are making these circles. A few also suggest that the patches could be a result of toxic gases that are rising from the surface of earth.

Dr. Getzin said as Australian circles are bug-free, so there are almost no chances of ants causing these patches, but sparse grasses could be the possible culprit. Plants in the area could be organizing themselves in order to deal with dry conditions.

“For a long time, ecologists weren't convinced that plants in dry areas could organize themselves because the theoretical principles for these processes lie in physics. But it has since become increasingly clear how important this process is”, said Getzin.

For the latest research, Getzin and his colleagues used aerial images and mathematical modeling to confirm that plants are behind the circles. The research has been published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.