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Could plants and fungi take the role of tress?; Very important question
Topic Started: Jun 3 2018, 03:06 PM (247 Views)
CeratosaurusKing
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So i need to know a answer for this for my recent project called raparia where no trees are introduced and instead plants and fungi take that niche. What i need to know is could they produce a good amount of oxygen for organisms to live on and is this possible?

Also i appreciate criticism on my project
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Rodlox
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CeratosaurusKing
Jun 3 2018, 03:06 PM
So i need to know a answer for this for my recent project called raparia where no trees are introduced and instead plants and fungi take that niche. What i need to know is could they produce a good amount of oxygen for organisms to live on and is this possible?

Also i appreciate criticism on my project
yes, non-tree plants could provide plenty of O2. fungi...not sure; sorry
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suchipithecus
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Now, I'm not an expert, but fungi are heterotrophs. Unless they could potentially be a second 'layer' of forest, growing out of the top or bottom of a forest, so that it forms a sort of separate canopy, feeding off the other plants, they won't form large ecosystems.
Edited by suchipithecus, Jun 3 2018, 04:02 PM.
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CaledonianWarrior96
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Could this not have been posted in the QTDNTOT thread?

But to further add to this, a tree by definition is any plant that can develop a woody trunk and reach sizes that are an excess of a few metres or around about that size. I mean theortically given enough time and the right conditions, even pretty simple plant species could evolve into trees. My main point being that whatever plants you add to your project may have a good chance of evolving into trees anyway.
Edited by CaledonianWarrior96, Jun 3 2018, 04:23 PM.
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truteal
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Sheather
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CaledonianWarrior96
Jun 3 2018, 04:22 PM
Could this not have been posted in the QTDNTOT thread?

But to further add to this, a tree by definition is any plant that can develop a woody trunk and reach sizes that are an excess of a few metres or around about that size. I mean theortically given enough time and the right conditions, even pretty simple plant species could evolve into trees. My main point being that whatever plants you add to your project may have a good chance of evolving into trees anyway.
Please don't discourage separate topics for specific concept discussions, these were once the foundation of the forum and since that thread, the quality of discussion on the site in my view has degraded as there's always a new question to take priority, and soon old ones are forgotten - if they get attention at all.

On the subject of trees you are correct. Trees are not a taxonomic, related group. They include a lot of totally unrelated species allied only by size. Trees or at least the tree-like form have evolved from as unlikely seeming lineages as squash, cacti, ferns, and legumes (the pea family.) Long ago, there were horsetail trees. If a plant can produce woody tissue and transport water upwards it can evolve into a tree.

Fungus are more restricted because they cannot photosynthesize. Fungal trees could function as parasites but could not be free-living without adapting to produce chlorophyll - not necessarily impossible, particularly if there was some weird horizontal gene transfer involved, but not especially likely either.
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Tartarus
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If we're using the term "tree" to refer to just various forms of tall columnar life forms that cannot move from the spot where they are, then fungal trees have already existed in Earth's past. The prototaxites were big tree-like fungi that were a big thing in the Silurian and Devonian.

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Caesio16
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Um... sorry, noob, but I think that trees actually are plants...
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Velociraptor
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No need to be so rude
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Archeoraptor
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yeah trees are plants that is a given, but I suppose he was referring to not tree plants
basically as sheather mentioned a lot of plant groups have become trees, even today we have tree-ferns, nothing stopping that happening ey I would evolution encourages tree like forms rather frequently unless there is a desert or something
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SpeculativeNebula
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Specifically about fungal photosynthetic trees (as opposed to all tall columnar sessile organisms) while they might not exist on their own, could lichen-like symbiotic organisms ever become tree-like under the right circumstances? Say they got a head start over other groups in becoming tall (and structurally strong enough to grow tall) and reaching light over other light-dependant organisms. I'm not too familiar with lichens or the potential for a fungus/phototroph symbiosis to become a dominating tree species.
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HangingThief
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SpeculativeNebula
Jun 9 2018, 07:06 AM
Specifically about fungal photosynthetic trees (as opposed to all tall columnar sessile organisms) while they might not exist on their own, could lichen-like symbiotic organisms ever become tree-like under the right circumstances? Say they got a head start over other groups in becoming tall (and structurally strong enough to grow tall) and reaching light over other light-dependant organisms. I'm not too familiar with lichens or the potential for a fungus/phototroph symbiosis to become a dominating tree species.
The issue with lichens is that they currently lack an effective way to transport water and nutrients.
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SpeculativeNebula
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HangingThief
Jun 9 2018, 07:22 AM
SpeculativeNebula
Jun 9 2018, 07:06 AM
Specifically about fungal photosynthetic trees (as opposed to all tall columnar sessile organisms) while they might not exist on their own, could lichen-like symbiotic organisms ever become tree-like under the right circumstances? Say they got a head start over other groups in becoming tall (and structurally strong enough to grow tall) and reaching light over other light-dependant organisms. I'm not too familiar with lichens or the potential for a fungus/phototroph symbiosis to become a dominating tree species.
The issue with lichens is that they currently lack an effective way to transport water and nutrients.
I was sort of thinking could they eventually evolve the infrastructure needed, given time and lack of competition from true plants. However I don't know the specifics of OP's project.

If oxygen production is what you need, while forests do provide a lot of that much of the oxygen we get here on Earth, a lot of it also comes from microscopic organisms, especially sea plankton. If your planet's seas can support phytoplankton and they're being seeded with them I think they would become a large contributor of oxygen production. Couldn't even guess as to how long it'd take to make the air breathable though, assuming there's nothing else in the air that could be toxic.
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