Researchers have used artificial intelligence to identify 263 global sites with fairy circle patterns, previously only known in Namibia and Australia. This study revealed certain environmental factors associated with their formation and suggests fairy circles might be indicators of ecosystem health and resilience to climate change.
These enigmatic circles appear as bare patches of soil encircled by rings of vegetation and, until recently, were documented only in Namibia and Australia. “Analyzing their effects on the functioning of ecosystems and discovering the environmental factors that determine their distribution is essential to better understand the causes of the formation of these vegetation patterns and their ecological importance,” says Emilio Guirado, principal investigator of the study, belonging to the Laboratory of Ecology of Arid Zones and Global Change at the University of Alicante .
“This study has taken into account multiple variables hitherto not considered, such as albedo or the state of the aquifers. This is a particularly relevant factor, since the massive use of groundwater in arid areas around the world, including deserts, could disturb these formations,” says Jaime Martínez-Valderrama of the EEZA-CSIC.
“These results also open the door to research on whether these spatial patterns can be indicators of ecosystem degradation with climate change, as is the case for other spatial patterns of vegetation in arid zones,” says Miguel Berdugo, co-author of the study.
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