Termites Behind Desert 'Fairy Circles' (7 of 7) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Termites Behind Desert 'Fairy Circles' (7 of 7)

Caption

This shows one of the fairy circles in Farm Dieprivier / Namib Desert Lodge, Namibia, during a dry year. Nearly all the grass in the landscape has been consumed or destroyed by sand storms. Only the perennial belts of fairy circles still provide plant biomass for herbivores. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the March 29, 2013, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by Norbert Juergens at University of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues was titled, "The Biological Underpinnings of Namib Desert Fairy Circles."

Credit

[Image courtesy of N. Juergens]

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