Revisiting Theron's hypothesis on the origin of fairy circles after four decades: Euphorbias are not the cause.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Euphorbia hypothesis on the origin of fairy circles (FCs) in Namibia dates back to 1979. It proposes that the remains of decaying shrubs would induce an allelopathic interaction with the grasses and thereby cause bare-soil FCs. Here, we investigated this hypothesis based on revisiting marked Euphorbias after four decades, comparing the typical size distribution of dead Euphorbia damarana and FCs, and analyzing the spatial patterns of Euphorbias and FCs within the same drone-mapped study plots in three regions of Namibia.

Results

We found four dead Euphorbias in the southern Giribes that were marked by G.K. Theron about 40 years ago. Those locations did not develop into FCs over this time span. However, for the four dead Euphorbias, we provide photographic evid

SUBMITTER: Getzin S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8162014 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature