Science Can’t Solve This Botanical Mystery, Can You?

local legend says these patches of bare red earth are footprints of the gods their name may sound mythical but these fanciful formations are very real and have been stumping scientists and stirring up controversy even after decades of study these are the namibian fairy circles [Music] hey i'm tasha the amazon and you're watching floralogic today we're talking about namibian fairy circles these fantastical circles of stype agrostatus grasses are here to sprinkle some pixie dust on our explorations into botany thanks to pila for sponsoring this episode if you don't know pila they're a canadian company with one mission to create a future without waste that all starts with the pila case over one million people have made the switch to pila cases and it's easy to see why there are dozens of cute designs to choose from they're magsafe compatible have military drop protection and they're made from plants that's right the case is fully compostable so if you ever get a new phone your case will break down in your backyard or industrial compost but it won't break down in your pocket the case is super soft and grippy we love helping the environment so naturally we're big fans of pila if you want to get your own pillow case head to lynx dot pila dot earth slash animal logic and use code animal logic at checkout for 40 off for the first 100 subscribers and 25 off for everyone after that or click on the link in the description below thanks pila namibian fairy circles can be found stretching across thousands of square kilometers of arid grasslands in namibia and southern africa the circles themselves range from about 2 to 10 meters across and are spread out about every 5 to 10 meters the further north you go the larger the circles become with some in angola reaching almost 40 meters across there are different types of rings in the world but to be a true fairy circle they have to meet three criteria one they are empty gaps in grassland without a central insect nest structure two they have the ability to form spatially periodic patterns and three they're confined to a narrow arid climatic envelope when densely clustered together the circles form a distinct hexagonal pattern that has mystified scientists fairy circles are not to be confused with fairy rings which are mushrooms that grow in otherworldly looking halos unlike fairy circles we have a clear understanding of what causes fairy rings the mycelium the root-like network of a fungus underground grows outward from the center as the nutrients are depleted the mushrooms in the center die leaving a magical looking ring that has been the root of myth and folklore around the globe before we get into namibian fairy circles i'm going to stop right here and give you a spoiler despite decades of research and investigation no one really knows why these circles exist all we have is a handful of theories the reason it's been so challenging to unravel the mysteries of the fairy circles is that no one has ever actually witnessed one in the making fairy circles occur in very remote and arid areas with between 50 and 150 milliliters of rain which makes observing them very tough what we do know is that the bare center of the fairy circle will stay naked for potentially 100 years not moving or changing in size the whole time it exists a study that observed these fairy circles over a 50-year period determined that 97 of them remained unchanged even after several years of drought during which the grass died off when the grass grew back they grew back in the same circle formation as if they had never left so let's dive into a few of the non-supernatural theories behind the creation of namibian fairy circles one blames termites which coincidentally is my go-to explanation for everything i can't tell you how many times termites ate my homework growing up this theory suggests that termites clear the grasses to allow moisture to accumulate at the center of the circle underground the termites can then access this precious resource this hypothesis doesn't necessarily hold water though since there aren't always termites present where fairy circles are found another theory also taps into the fact that the center of the circle has a higher moisture content than the soil under the surrounding grasses this one suggests that the grasses themselves grow in this distinct pattern a process known as spatial self-organization since the soil in the center of the circle has a higher moisture content the grasses grow in a ring around these bare patches to access the moisture with their roots this makes the rim of the circle prime real estate with grasses competing for a place at the edge of the fairy circle another hypothesis looks at the way some arid grasses clone themselves some of these grasses send out underground roots called rhizomes which shoot up sprouts along the way sort of like the explanation for fairy rings this theory claims that as the roots age the central sprouts die off leaving a bare ring in the center of the cloned grasses these kinds of rings are actually pretty standard in clonal plants just on a much smaller scale but another study counters this theory by pointing out that not all the grasses around the ferry circle are genetically identical as would be expected if they were clones in fact the grasses around the circles show high genetic diversity this has led scientists to determine that these sorts of rings are not fairy circles and are more accurately referred to as just plain rings yet another theory offers a gassier explanation hydrocarbon micro seepage this theory hypothesizes that gases like methane propane butane and ethane leak from below killing the grasses that would normally grow in the bare spots it's possible that a combination of these phenomena are the explanation behind namibian fairy circles but southern africa is not the only place these circles can be found ten thousand kilometers away in western australia fairy circles were also discovered in 2014. despite the distance between them the spatial pattern of the fairy circles in namibia and australia's remote outback are essentially the same it's this common denominator of the hot dry climate that suggests that the self-organization theory is in fact the winner after all but more studies need to be done before any definitive conclusions can be drawn regardless of how they come to be namibian fairy circles continue to enchant us with their magically mathematical arrangements maybe one day we'll come to understand their mysteries but in the meantime we can take pleasure in the speculation or just blame termites so what should we talk about next let me know in the comments and don't forget to subscribe for new episodes every week it might be so loud hey hey blame the termites torrites [Music] oh my but all god words in there were basically a goober sauce i'm done

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 115,914

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, smart, 4k, nature documentary, nature doc, floralogic, second nature, mystery, botany, namibian fairy circle, fairy ring, fairy, circle, ring, plant ring, mushroom ring, botanical mystery, desert, rocks, geology, moving rocks, termites, solved, solved it, solved mystery, unknown, aliens, crop circles, grasslands, grass, africa, australia

Id: zUfVoNGpfvU

Length: 7min 23sec (443 seconds)

Published: Fri May 20 2022