Models hypothesizing microbial community assembly in Namib Desert Fairy Circles.

Arrow indicate the assembly processes (purple: stochastic/black: niche-partitioning/blue: neutral). Colors are represent virtually the FC zones (Green: vegetated covered control soils/Yellow: FC margins/Red: FC Centers) where these processes occur. Red arrows indicate the origin in time and length of the environmental disturbance responsible for FC appearance. The x-axis does not reflect proportionally the time scale.