Knowledge Resource Center for Ecological Environment in Arid Area
DOI | 10.1016/j.ecocom.2015.02.001 |
Namibian fairy circles and epithelial cells share emergent geometric order | |
Zhang, Haozhe1; Sinclair, Robert2 | |
通讯作者 | Sinclair, Robert |
来源期刊 | ECOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY
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ISSN | 1476-945X |
EISSN | 1476-9840 |
出版年 | 2015 |
卷号 | 22页码:32-35 |
英文摘要 | Fairy circles are enigmatic features of the Namib desert landscape. They are large, almost perfectly circular patches of barren soil in sparse grassland. Although a matter of continuing debate, we make no attempt to explain their origin. The focus of our approach is a statistical analysis of the spatial patterns. These are easily accessible via aerial and satellite imagery. Observations over extended periods of time have revealed that they have a life-cycle of birth, growth and death. It has also been known for some time that the fairy circles are not randomly distributed. Our novel finding is that the connectivity patterns of fairy circles and metazoan epithelial cells are statistically indistinguishable, while remaining clearly distinct from other commonly observed polygonal patternings. This result identifies an analogy between the microscopic world of epithelial cells and the macroscopic realm of the Namib, suggesting that approaches developed specifically for the analysis of microscopic structures may extend into ecologically relevant, macroscopic dimensions. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
英文关键词 | Fairy circles Epithelial topology Ecological topology Spatial analysis Ecological scaling |
类型 | Article |
语种 | 英语 |
国家 | USA ; Japan |
收录类别 | SCI-E |
WOS记录号 | WOS:000356196900004 |
WOS关键词 | TERRITORY SIZE ; FIRE ANTS ; PATTERN ; HYPOTHESES ; ORIGIN ; DESERT ; SCALE ; SHAPE |
WOS类目 | Ecology |
WOS研究方向 | Environmental Sciences & Ecology |
资源类型 | 期刊论文 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/186763 |
作者单位 | 1.Iowa State Univ, Dept Stat, Ames, IA 50011 USA; 2.Okinawa Inst Sci & Technol Grad Univ, Math Biol Unit, Onna, Okinawa 9040495, Japan |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Zhang, Haozhe,Sinclair, Robert. Namibian fairy circles and epithelial cells share emergent geometric order[J],2015,22:32-35. |
APA | Zhang, Haozhe,&Sinclair, Robert.(2015).Namibian fairy circles and epithelial cells share emergent geometric order.ECOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY,22,32-35. |
MLA | Zhang, Haozhe,et al."Namibian fairy circles and epithelial cells share emergent geometric order".ECOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY 22(2015):32-35. |
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