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| The Fire Forest; In a hostile environment, a rich ecosystem hangs from the branches of giant trees | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 11 2016, 10:00 PM (4,492 Views) | |
| HangingThief | Feb 11 2016, 10:00 PM Post #1 |
ghoulish
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 Table of Contents 9 million years in the future, life on earth hasn't changed all that much. The anthropocene age was not a severe mass extinction- humans wiped themselves out before they could eliminate many major groups of animals. But they did have a profound impact on the climate- by digging up fossilized swamp plants and algae and using them for energy, they unleashed millions of years of stored carbon back into the atmosphere. As the climate warmed, permafrost melted and bacteria began to digest the frozen plant matter, releasing even more greenhouse gases. They could do nothing as their seas rose and arable land desertified, politics preventing them from taking any steps toward population reduction. The eruption of the Yellowstone caldera midway through the 21st century was the last straw. After the humans, their pollution and their agricultural fields went away, forests and algal blooms went to town converting the human and volcano created co2 into oxygen and creating oxygen rich conditions not unlike the Carboniferous. The ice caps have melted entirely, and barely a dry spot is left- swamp became more common than forest. (EDIT: there's some things wrong with that section^, so just ignore it. For example, the Yellowstone caldera wouldn't actually erupt so soon and cause severe climate change, and it's a cliche anyway. I'll fix it eventually. The basic premise is that the earth is warmer, and this project takes place in coastal arctic regions of North America.) Much of the world became a paradise, especially for ectothermic animals. (However, mammals and birds certainly didn't go anywhere or give up their niches to gigantic insects, as sad as it is.) The coal swamps returned in this thick, humid atmosphere in any reasonably warm lowland area. Life flourished in most areas. But these areas are not what we are going to focus on. The far northern coastal regions is not hot and humid or cold and dry. It is best described as a mild, rather dry Mediterranean climate. In the summer, rain is rare and most moisture comes from sea fog. It should be a desert. But it's not- there are extremely dense forests consisting of the towering descendants of redwoods (Sequoia destruaradix) and bamboos (Tuberculobambusa gigas). The soil is dry and devoid of other plant life. (No thanks to the shade and acidic carpet of needles created by the redwoods.) How do these giant plants get enough water to survive? What is their secret? It's all thanks to their roots. In the redwoods, it's rather simple and has to do with the geography- the areas with redwood forests correlate with shallow water tables. Most trees start their life with a large taproot for getting moisture from the ground, but become shallow rooted in adulthood. The coast redwoods that the future redwoods evolved from were no exception. But the future redwoods evolved to keep it, and grow quite possibly the biggest taproot ever to pierce into the water table and suck out the water. But this brings to light a problem- how do the young trees become established? The establishment of young trees is an unusual case of what could be described as botanical parental care and sacrifice of offspring. Most plants adopt the strategy of spreading their seeds as far away as possible so that offspring aren't in competition with their parent. But a baby tree can't obtain water on its own in this climate- it needs help. So, the parent tree connects some roots with a nearby sapling (which grows in the winter) shares water with it. But this sapling isn't destined to become a giant tree- it's mother simply can't have another redwood grow right next to it. The young tree "understands" this and will sacrifice itself to a sibling- another sapling growing further from the mother. It will connect roots and give the water being pumped to it by their mother to the next sapling. As soon as it has connected to another sapling, it mostly stops growing itself apart from strengthening the roots used to pump water to and from its neighbors. It becomes nothing more than a water transportation unit. A chain of these water transporters continues, sometimes through dozens of young trees, until one that is a sufficient distance from the mother tree is reached. This all must happen before the winter is over- any unconnected saplings die in the summer drought. The final link grows very rapidly, as the mother tree pumps not only fluids but also sugar (as their is little sunlight below the canopy) and nitrogen to the young tree to fuel it. Because it receives everything it needs from its mother, it focuses on two things- growing a tall trunk and thick bark, and growing its taproot. Once the taproot hits the water table, however, the mother doesn't cut it off just yet- perhaps if it has many offspring it will cut off the weaker ones, but generally it keeps the supply flowing. Even though the tree is independent, it's not out of danger yet- indeed, it will not be completely out of danger for hundreds of years. It is important that it grows as tall as possible as fast as possible, and not just because it needs sunlight. We will get around to the reason why shortly. The fast growing bamboo grows in the redwood forest when a tree falls down and lets in sunlight. But in general, places with underground reservoirs are practically monocultures of redwoods (at least from a ground level view) and those without are dominated by bamboo. But in many places, due to redwood's previously described water sharing chains, redwoods can slowly encroach upon the bamboo. So how does the bamboo get its water? One clue is that some species of related, deciduous bamboos have colonized the inland deserts. They have become succulents. Not visible stem or leaf succulents like cacti, but rather root succulents- they have enormous underground tubers for storing water and sugar. One curious fact, though, is that the winters are not long or wet enough for a stand to accumulate enough water to last it through the summer. It should run dry after a bit of vigorous spring growth. Yet it doesn't. Tomorrow, I'll post why there are only bamboo and redwoods, why it is necessary for the young redwoods to receive support from their mother even after hitting the water table, and why the bamboo doesn't run out of water- (hint: it's in the title) I probably won't be getting around to animals for a while. Edited by HangingThief, Aug 22 2016, 09:23 PM.
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| IIGSY | Mar 26 2017, 05:34 PM Post #76 |
A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
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But there's flatworms. And many terrestrial leeches have much better water retention than any flatworm. I know that flatworm secretes a special chemical, but I wanted to ask anyway. Also, I love your serpentine insect for two reasons. One, it highlights the massive lifestyle difference in the larvae and adults of insects. Second, I always had a love for arthropods physically overpowering similar sized vertebrates. |
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Projects Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates Last one crawling: The last arthropod ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess) Potential ideas- Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized. Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal. Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents. Quotes Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups In honor of the greatest clade of all time More pictures Other cool things All African countries can fit into Brazil
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| Rodlox | Mar 26 2017, 05:55 PM Post #77 |
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Superhuman
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Cut It Out. please. you don't like it when people go in your projects and shoot your ideas. |
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.---------------------------------------------. Parts of the Cluster Worlds: "Marsupialless Australia" (what-if) & "Out on a Branch" (future evolution) & "The Earth under a still sun" (WIP) | |
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| IIGSY | Mar 26 2017, 06:17 PM Post #78 |
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A huntsman spider that wastes time on the internet because it has nothing better to do
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"Shooting your ideas"? Where did you get that? I was just asking a question. |
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Projects Punga: A terraformed world with no vertebrates Last one crawling: The last arthropod ARTH-6810: A world without vertebrates (It's ded, but you can still read I guess) Potential ideas- Swamp world: A world covered in lakes, with the largest being caspian sized. Nematozoic: After a mass extinction of ultimate proportions, a single species of nematode is the only surviving animal. Tri-devonian: A devonian like ecosystem with holocene species on three different continents. Quotes Phylogeny of the arthropods and some related groups In honor of the greatest clade of all time More pictures Other cool things All African countries can fit into Brazil
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