在納米比亞發(fā)現(xiàn)神秘的仙女圈

在納米比亞發(fā)現(xiàn)神秘的仙女圈

Fairy Circles are circular gaps evenly distributed across the arid grassland throughout the Namib Desert that look like dots on fabric when viewed from above. But no one really knows how the Fairy Circles scattered across the Namib Desert formed.

仙女圈是在納米布沙漠干旱的草原上均勻分布的圓形縫隙，從上面看就像織物上的小點。但是沒有人真正知道散布在納米布沙漠的仙女圈是如何形成的。

Until 2014, it was thought that they only appeared along the Namib Desert in southern Africa, but then similar Fairy Circles were discovered near the western Australian mining town of Newman. However, Namibia's Fairy Circles are still the most famous and attractive destination for scientists who have studied them since the 1970s.

直到2014年，人們一直認(rèn)為它們只出現(xiàn)在非洲南部的納米布沙漠，但后來在澳大利亞西部的紐曼礦鎮(zhèn)附近也發(fā)現(xiàn)了類似的仙女圈。然而，納米比亞的仙女圈仍然是自20世紀(jì)70年代以來研究它們的科學(xué)家最著名和最有吸引力的目的地。

“It's an empty circular area with nothing on it, and there's a ring of grass around it,” said Eugene Marais, director of research at the Gobabeb-Namib Research Institute, describing the Fairy Circles. . "When you look down from the air or from high points, it almost looks like measles."

“這是一個空的圓形區(qū)域，上面什么也沒有，周圍有一圈草，”戈巴比-納米比研究所的研究主管尤金·馬雷斯在描述這些仙女圈時說。“當(dāng)你從空中或從高處往下看時，它幾乎像麻疹。”

Scientists have tried to explain why these magical circles existed for decades. But until now we still have difficulty in understanding this mysterious natural phenomenon. As Professor Marais said, it was a phenomenon that was supposed to be very easy to explain but hard to imagine, no explanation was recognized.

科學(xué)家們試圖解釋為什么這些神奇的圓圈存在了幾十年。但是直到現(xiàn)在我們?nèi)匀缓茈y理解這個神秘的自然現(xiàn)象。正如馬雷教授所說，這是一種很容易解釋卻很難想象的現(xiàn)象，沒有人承認(rèn)有任何解釋。

In addition to mystical and sci-fi explanations like fairies dancing in circles and preventing trees from growing, or UFOs landing in the desert at night, there are a number of plausible explanations. More on why the Fairy Circles exist.

除了一些神秘和科幻的解釋，比如仙女會繞圈跳舞，阻止樹木生長，或者不明飛行物會在夜間降落在沙漠中，還有很多關(guān)于精靈圈存在的原因看似合理的解釋。

Some scientists believe it is related to the termites that made Namib their home, and research has shown that there are colonies under most barren circles bordering this vegetation. The theory is that termite colonies intrude and invade each other, but when termite colonies of similar size meet, they cannot destroy each other, so they create "international" buffers between them.

一些科學(xué)家認(rèn)為，這與在納米布安家的白蟻有關(guān)，研究表明，在大多數(shù)貧瘠的環(huán)形植被周圍都有蟻群。理論是白蟻群落相互入侵，但當(dāng)相似規(guī)模的白蟻群落相遇時，它們無法摧毀彼此，所以它們在它們之間創(chuàng)造了“國際”緩沖。

Another plausible theory is that these Fairy Circles are the result of a competition of plants for scarce water in the Namib Desert. Plants help their closest neighbors by shading and maintaining water on the soil surface, but hindering the growth of other distant plants by growing long roots and absorbing water from the soil.

另一個似是而非的理論是，這些仙女圈是納米布沙漠中植物爭奪稀缺水源的結(jié)果。植物通過遮蔽和保持土壤表面的水分來幫助它們最近的鄰居，但是通過長出長長的根和從土壤中吸收水分來阻礙其他遠(yuǎn)距離植物的生長。

There are also those who believe that the Namib Desert's fairy circle is somehow connected to the noxious Euphorbia bushes, as some remnants of this plant have been found in the circles.

也有人認(rèn)為納米布沙漠的仙女圈與有毒的大戟灌木有關(guān)，因為在仙女圈中發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些這種植物的殘留物。

But the truth is that no one knows for sure whether any of these theories are correct, or the actual answer is a combination of theories.

但事實是，沒有人確切知道這些理論是否正確，或者實際的答案是理論的組合。

Research done on newer Fairy Circles in Australia has found that termites do not cause barren soil, but they are the result of abiotic processes such as soil mechanical weathering due to rain.

在澳大利亞新仙女圈所做的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，白蟻不會導(dǎo)致土壤貧瘠，但它們是非生物過程的結(jié)果，如由于降雨造成的土壤機械風(fēng)化。

Dr Stephan Getzin from the University of Göttingen explained: “The vegetation void caused by the worker termites is only half the size of the fairy circle and not artfully arranged. In most cases, we didn't even find any hard termitaria species underground that prevented grass growth. ”

哥廷根大學(xué)的斯蒂芬·葛津博士解釋說:“工蟻造成的植被空洞只有仙女圈的一半大小，沒有巧妙地排列。在大多數(shù)情況下，我們甚至沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)任何堅硬的白蟻物種在地下阻止草的生長。”

The mystery of the Fairy Circles remains unsolved. Although scientists have certainly made a lot of progress since the 1970s, we may never really know what the purpose of these formations is.

仙女圈的神秘仍然沒有解決。盡管自20世紀(jì)70年代以來，科學(xué)家們確實取得了很大進(jìn)展，但我們可能永遠(yuǎn)不會真正知道這些構(gòu)造的目的是什么。