Dr. Stephan Getzin | Scientist | Ecologist

A look back at the 2nd International Fairy Circle Symposium

The “1st International Fairy Circle Symposium” took place from 25th to 26th February 2015 in the NamibRand Nature Reserve. At that time, the scientists still met in a workshop-like garage at Wolwedans because there was no suitable conference room. Nevertheless, the 1st Fairy Circle Symposium was undoubtedly an important event. Around 2015, there were many different hypotheses about the origin of fairy circles and thus quite a lot of disagreement. The representatives of the various theories came together for the first time in that garage. Even the New York Times was present with a journalist. At the 1st symposium, there was still considerable disagreement about the cause of fairy circles. Chemical substances or rising gases were presented as possible causes, fairy circles were underground “gravestones” of old harvester termite nests, claimed an entomologist from South Africa, or fairy circles were eaten away by sand termites. Then there was also a large group from South Africa, Israel, the USA, and Germany who claimed that fairy circles arise naturally as a result of competition between plants for water. I belonged to that latter group, because in my presentation I showed with spatial analyses of aerial images that no other process, such as gases or termites, could create the extremely ordered pattern of circles. In contrast, plant self-organization is known worldwide in arid regions for causing such extremely regular patterns. Fairy circles are thus another example of how plants arrange themselves in optimal growth patterns to utilize the scarce water in desert areas.

Ten years later, the “2nd International Fairy Circle Symposium” took now place at Wolwedans from 27th to 28th February. Once again, Nils Odendaal, CEO of NamibRand, was the organizer of the conference. But this time there was a beautiful conference room for all the speakers and guests, including the many tour guides in attendance. A lot had happened in ten years of research, and it was time to evaluate this new knowledge in a consolidated manner. Once again, the scientists took advantage of this important opportunity to present their research results. But one thing was different at the second fairy circle conference: despite repeated invitations from the organizer, neither representatives of the toxic gas theory nor representatives of the termite theory showed up. The gas theory appeared in 2011, but to date it has not been substantiated by any further studies. The sand termite theory appeared in 2013, but several independent studies proved that termites do not live in many fairy circles and that the dying grasses do not have eaten away roots. Instead, extensive measurement data on the stunted grasses showed that the young seedlings dry up because their roots, which are on average 10 cm long, cannot penetrate the very dry “death zone” of the topsoil. They die because they cannot penetrate into deeper, moister soil layers quickly enough. For the survival of most grasses around the circles, the loss of the few seedlings in the fairy circle is advantageous, because it means that the underground water source is permanently preserved for them, as it does not become overgrown. This self-organization of the plants means that the large grasses at the edge, with their strong root systems at a depth of 30 cm, always have quick access to the underground water source. When it rains again, they do not have to germinate from seed first. Thanks to their long roots, they immediately turn green and thus have a vital competitive advantage over the new seedlings in the fairy circle, which quickly die again.

The vast majority of scientists present at the conference agreed with these explanations for the cause of fairy circles. Ehud Meron, Hezi Yizhaq, and Shacher Feder from Israel, Michael Cramer from South Africa, and I from Germany all presented research findings that explain fairy circles through plant self-organization. With my talk “Systematic data evidence reveals: Plant water stress causes Namibia’s fairy circles”, I gave a factual summary on the topic. Almost simultaneously with the fairy circle conference in February 2025, Michael Cramer and the American termite expert Walter Tschinkel published a review article emphasizing that the explanation of plant self-organization is the only theory of origin that is consistent with all observations in the field. This latest summary of the state of fairy circle research also supports plant self-organization and rejects all other theories for a variety of reasons.

However, the discussion about fairy circles is not completely over. There was also a lecture by Marion Meyer from South Africa, who advocates the very old euphorbia theory published in 1979. The problem with the euphorbia theory, however, is that it was already rejected in 2004 by its original author, Guillaume Karl Theron from South Africa. We also refuted this theory in 2021 with extensive research, as dead euphorbia plants did not develop into fairy circles even after four decades. Another problem with the euphorbia theory is the fact that Marion Meyer refers to circles as “fairy circles”, even though they have nothing to do with the phenomenon of real fairy circles. For example, we used video footage in March 2025 to prove that round rings that somewhat look like fairy circles in aerial or satellite images have nothing in common with real fairy circles once they are examined on the ground.

Fairy circles have fascinated people for decades, and recently the term has increasingly been applied to circular phenomena that have completely different causes. Since 2019, huge round circles in forest areas measuring several hundred meters in diameter have also been referred to as fairy circles. However, these isolated circles are considered to be signs of underground hydrogen reservoirs. With the sharp rise in interest in hydrogen in recent years, geologists are now trying to better place their publications by using the term “fairy circles”. For this reason, we wrote a scientific paper on the definition of fairy circles in 2021, because the dilution of the term does not do justice to the rare and therefore special phenomenon of fairy circles.

The 2nd International Fairy Circle Symposium was definitely an important event for discussing the latest scientific findings on fairy circles in an appropriate setting. The conference was very well organized, the lunch and dinner at Wolwedans were excellent, and the excursion to the fairy circles in NamibRand was an all-round successful event!