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| Salty World; What about a dry, salt-saturated world? | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 14 2010, 09:27 AM (277 Views) | |
| Ànraich | Apr 14 2010, 09:27 AM Post #1 |
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi
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Recently I've been researching Alkaliphiles, organisms that thrive in very alkali environments, such as salt flats or very salty lakes/seas (specifically areas with a pH of 9-11). They maintain their internal pH of 8 or so by constantly pumping hydrogen in the form of hydronium across their cell membranes and into their cytoplasm. I believe that life, complex and simple, could potentially evolve on such a world, though it would definitely be a challenge.They would be limited to a range within a days distance of water, unless they had some way of storing water or gathering it from the atmosphere. A complex filtration system would be needed to remove the excess alkali salts from their bodies, but I have more to add to that. In order to ensure their survival, they would need a constant supply of hydronium, so their cells could maintain their constant pH. Luckily this is easy to make by dissolving Arrhenius acids in water. Unfortunately my knowledge of chemistry is limited and I do not know exactly what an Arrhenius acid is. What I do know is this, in order for this to work it must be an Arrhenius acid that is: efficient, naturally occurring, easily obtainable, and non-harmful in nature. It is said that Alkaliphiles can also somehow get hydronium from carbonate rich soil, but I don't know how they do it and how efficient it is, so I didn't bother looking into it. However dissolving the acid in water creates not only hydronium but hydroxide as well. I'm not sure whether that would be a problem or not, but I was thinking that it would be removed along with the salt in urine. Even so, if I can get more information on it, I may be able to create a kingdom of organisms already! I have an idea for Kingdom Xerophyta, a kingdom of plants adapted to live in the dry, dry desert beyond the large seasonal salt-lakes and salt-ponds. They extract hydronium from carbonate in the soil and gather water vapor from the air, they are very similar to cacti in many respects as well (protecting their water supply, though not always with spines). The environment will be mostly arid world-wide, but there will be large salt-lakes and lots of smaller salt-ponds, and many streams and rivers between them where the flowing water has become fresh and host to a separate kingdom of non-Alkaliphilic life. Thoughts? Ideas? Contributions? |
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We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar. "The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming Tree That Owns Itself
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| colddigger | Apr 14 2010, 09:34 AM Post #2 |
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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The environment shouldn't be worldwide, latitude would have a strong effect on it at least... H3O+ is a naturally occurring thing in water, putting acids in the water (to my knowledge) would just be adding more hydrogen to the water and cause it (H3O+) to be produced quicker without producing more OH-... Animal and plant life on Earth have water storage so I think it isn't too far fetched to give your extremists a water storage... |
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Oh Fine. Oh hi you! Why don't you go check out the finery that is SGP?? v Don't click v Spoiler: click to toggle | |
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9:24 AM Jul 11