Spiral and Rotor Patterns Produced by Fairy Ring Fungi

Abstract:

Soil fungi fill many essential ecological and biogeochemical roles, e.g. decomposing litter, redistributing nutrients, and promoting biodiversity. Fairy ring fungi offer a rare glimpse into the otherwise opaque spatiotemporal dynamics of soil fungal growth, because subsurface mycelial patterns can be inferred from observations at the soil’s surface. These observations can be made directly when the fungi send up fruiting bodies (e.g., mushrooms and toadstools), or indirectly via the effect the fungi have on neighboring organisms. Grasses in particular often temporarily thrive on the nutrients liberated by the fungus, creating bands of rich, dark green turf at the edge of the fungal mat. To date, only annular (the “ring” in fairy ring) and arc patterns have been described in the literature.

We report observations of novel spiral and rotor pattern formation in fairy ring fungi, as seen in publically available high-resolution aerial imagery of 22 sites across the continental United States. To explain these new behaviors, we first demonstrate that a well-known model describing fairy ring formation is equivalent to the Gray-Scott reaction-diffusion model, which is known to support a wide range of dynamical behaviors, including annular traveling waves, rotors, spirals, and stable spatial patterns including spots and stripes. Bifurcation analysis and numerical simulation are then used to define the region of parameter space that supports spiral and rotor formation. We find that this region is adjacent to one within which typical fairy rings develop.

Model results suggest simple experimental procedures that could potentially induce traditional ring structures to exhibit rotor or spiral dynamics. Intriguingly, the Gray-Scott model predicts that these same procedures could be used to solicit even richer patterns, including spots and stripes, which have not yet been identified in the field.