10-26-2009, 08:14 PM
The size of our region, along with its latitudinal range (which I was told in the past, by somebody who should know, extends approximately from just inside the Tropics to a bit outside of the Arctic Circle: c.20-55 degreees North?) and the shapes & sizes of the various land-masses involved, should have certain effects on its ecosystems if the same ?natural laws? that apply in RL work normally here as well.
Firstly, considering the combination of those geographical details with the fact that there are apparently no other continents situated very close to ours to affect the matter, I?m fairly sure that we should have a set of ocean currents that basically flow clockwise all of the way around the ?outer? edges of main land-masses? and there should probably be an east-to-west current through the sea that separates our two main continents, too. This will obviously affect local temperatures to some extent, especially in coastal areas, leading to warmer conditions up the western coasts and cooler conditions down the eastern ones than latitude alone would provide. (The ?tropical? warmth that seems to exist in at least parts of Malabra, and presumably also within the former nation that had an Australian fauna as well, might be due either to a warm current that arrives in our region ? from whichever other one is located to our east ? or to leakage from some other ?Reality?) This means that our northernmost lands would have climates closer to those of such RL countries as Norway or Patagonia than to that of Siberia: However the cold current that descends from the Arctic to the east of that would cool northern parts of Keeslandia and Domnonia to some extent, thus helping to explain the [recorded] presence of Polar Bears in those lands.
EDIT (07th November): The cold current down the eastern coast probably fades out somewhere just south of Gnejs (which had an ecosystem like that of RL Sweden when last we discussed such matters...), as it sinks below the (less dense) warmer waters of those latitudes...
If there is an area of solid land covering the area around the [geographical] North Pole as the Bears think is the case, and if this is a small continent or very large island in its own right rather than just the northern tip of some larger continent that extends for a considerable distance into the hemisphere that lies across the Pole from us, then that should probably be surrounded by a clockwise ring of currents too and these would isolate it to some extent from conditions further south which means that it would be significantly colder than the RL Earth?s ?Arctic Sea? although (because of its smaller size) not quite as cold as ?Antarctica?. The clash between the westward-flowing current along its southern edge and the eastward-flowing current along our northern edge would tend to lead to very turbulent conditions in the intervening seas, which certainly fits well with what the Bears have observed there.
Secondly, of course, the combined influences of these conditions and our region?s geomorphology on local climates within the region would have a considerable influence on the types of ecosystem present? or, at least, this would be the case if it weren?t for ?leakages? from outside our own reality.
Thirdly, the combination of those climatic factors with our region?s relatively small size and its apparent isolation (by wide belts of ocean) from other continents would greatly reduce the scope for Birds to migrate. For example, on the RL Earth many of the avian species that occur within the two continents ecologically most similar to ours (i.e. Europe and North America) migrate south for the Winter, into or even beyond the Tropics, to escape seasonal food shortages as well as the cold: As we don?t have anything close to such wide expanses of suitable territories available for them to visit at that time of year we would presumably have both a narrower range of species present (as far as RL North America is concerned, approximately 5 species out of every 6 over-winter elsewhere?) and smaller populations for some of the species that we do have. The main deficit would be in Songbirds, a few other (smaller) groups such as Cuckoos and Swifts, and the predators that would otherwise specialise in feeding on those.
Also, many of the species of Geese ? and some species of other water-birds, of various types, too ? fly north from the ?temperate? lands during the Summer in order to use sections of the northern Tundra as breeding sites, exploiting the local shortage of resident predators as well as the new growth in the local flora (which there are relatively few resident herbivores to exploit, too) when the ?midnight sun? helps to make up for the shortness of the growing season, and as our lands don?t extend far enough north to include much such Tundra we presumably have a relative shortage of those species as well.
If our region?s geographical isolation from any other continents that exist on our world has persisted for very long time then obviously that will have limited the scope for any immigrations by stocks of animals (or plants) that evolved on those other continents but that weren?t capable of crossing wide expanses of ocean. On the ?animal? side, this would basically have limited immigration to maritime mammals, seabirds and those other types of birds that are actually capable of crossing wide expanses of open water (e.g. some ?shorebirds?, and some waterfowl?), possibly maritime reptiles such as turtles or crocodilians, maritime invertebrates, and any invertebrates that were able to hitch a ride with members of the vertebrate groups concerned . (I don?t know as much about plants, so I?ll leave them for somebody else to consider? at least for now.)
The way in which ?continental drift? has affected our region?s lands in the past, along with any changes in the overall global climate during those eons, will obviously have affected the region?s ecological history too. Do any of you possess any ?definite? information about these factors?
The native faunas in various parts of RL Earth suffered 'extinction events' that selectively targeted the larger species, at differing dates during the last 100'000 years or so, and as the dates involved tended to coincide with the arrival of 'modern' humans (& their dogs, & other accompanying species) in those lands there is a prominent school of though that suggests the over-hunting of animals that were unuaccustomed to (and therefore less wary about) a Human presence was probably a major factor involved in this. One piece of supporting evidence is the fact that in the case of North America the 'megafauna' species that survived were almost all ones that were themselves fairly recent immigrants from the lands across the Bering land-bridge where humans had already been active for longer...
So, do you think that maybe our region also went through such a stage? That would help to explain why we have so many of the species of larger animals that could have arrived from one or more of the more "Earthlike" realities' versions of Europe, Asia and North America at relatively recent dates, and so few 'endemic' species of large animals, despite the fact that there has presumably been at least some evolution from native or earlier-immigrant stocks occurring here. It would also allow for the presence of some species of large animals that don't also exist in RL, as survivors of the earlier "indigenous" fauna, and would probably also mean that most species of small animals present aren't the same as the ones occupying equivalent niches in the relevant RL ecosystems.
Your opinions?
Firstly, considering the combination of those geographical details with the fact that there are apparently no other continents situated very close to ours to affect the matter, I?m fairly sure that we should have a set of ocean currents that basically flow clockwise all of the way around the ?outer? edges of main land-masses? and there should probably be an east-to-west current through the sea that separates our two main continents, too. This will obviously affect local temperatures to some extent, especially in coastal areas, leading to warmer conditions up the western coasts and cooler conditions down the eastern ones than latitude alone would provide. (The ?tropical? warmth that seems to exist in at least parts of Malabra, and presumably also within the former nation that had an Australian fauna as well, might be due either to a warm current that arrives in our region ? from whichever other one is located to our east ? or to leakage from some other ?Reality?) This means that our northernmost lands would have climates closer to those of such RL countries as Norway or Patagonia than to that of Siberia: However the cold current that descends from the Arctic to the east of that would cool northern parts of Keeslandia and Domnonia to some extent, thus helping to explain the [recorded] presence of Polar Bears in those lands.
EDIT (07th November): The cold current down the eastern coast probably fades out somewhere just south of Gnejs (which had an ecosystem like that of RL Sweden when last we discussed such matters...), as it sinks below the (less dense) warmer waters of those latitudes...
If there is an area of solid land covering the area around the [geographical] North Pole as the Bears think is the case, and if this is a small continent or very large island in its own right rather than just the northern tip of some larger continent that extends for a considerable distance into the hemisphere that lies across the Pole from us, then that should probably be surrounded by a clockwise ring of currents too and these would isolate it to some extent from conditions further south which means that it would be significantly colder than the RL Earth?s ?Arctic Sea? although (because of its smaller size) not quite as cold as ?Antarctica?. The clash between the westward-flowing current along its southern edge and the eastward-flowing current along our northern edge would tend to lead to very turbulent conditions in the intervening seas, which certainly fits well with what the Bears have observed there.
Secondly, of course, the combined influences of these conditions and our region?s geomorphology on local climates within the region would have a considerable influence on the types of ecosystem present? or, at least, this would be the case if it weren?t for ?leakages? from outside our own reality.
Thirdly, the combination of those climatic factors with our region?s relatively small size and its apparent isolation (by wide belts of ocean) from other continents would greatly reduce the scope for Birds to migrate. For example, on the RL Earth many of the avian species that occur within the two continents ecologically most similar to ours (i.e. Europe and North America) migrate south for the Winter, into or even beyond the Tropics, to escape seasonal food shortages as well as the cold: As we don?t have anything close to such wide expanses of suitable territories available for them to visit at that time of year we would presumably have both a narrower range of species present (as far as RL North America is concerned, approximately 5 species out of every 6 over-winter elsewhere?) and smaller populations for some of the species that we do have. The main deficit would be in Songbirds, a few other (smaller) groups such as Cuckoos and Swifts, and the predators that would otherwise specialise in feeding on those.
Also, many of the species of Geese ? and some species of other water-birds, of various types, too ? fly north from the ?temperate? lands during the Summer in order to use sections of the northern Tundra as breeding sites, exploiting the local shortage of resident predators as well as the new growth in the local flora (which there are relatively few resident herbivores to exploit, too) when the ?midnight sun? helps to make up for the shortness of the growing season, and as our lands don?t extend far enough north to include much such Tundra we presumably have a relative shortage of those species as well.
If our region?s geographical isolation from any other continents that exist on our world has persisted for very long time then obviously that will have limited the scope for any immigrations by stocks of animals (or plants) that evolved on those other continents but that weren?t capable of crossing wide expanses of ocean. On the ?animal? side, this would basically have limited immigration to maritime mammals, seabirds and those other types of birds that are actually capable of crossing wide expanses of open water (e.g. some ?shorebirds?, and some waterfowl?), possibly maritime reptiles such as turtles or crocodilians, maritime invertebrates, and any invertebrates that were able to hitch a ride with members of the vertebrate groups concerned . (I don?t know as much about plants, so I?ll leave them for somebody else to consider? at least for now.)
The way in which ?continental drift? has affected our region?s lands in the past, along with any changes in the overall global climate during those eons, will obviously have affected the region?s ecological history too. Do any of you possess any ?definite? information about these factors?
The native faunas in various parts of RL Earth suffered 'extinction events' that selectively targeted the larger species, at differing dates during the last 100'000 years or so, and as the dates involved tended to coincide with the arrival of 'modern' humans (& their dogs, & other accompanying species) in those lands there is a prominent school of though that suggests the over-hunting of animals that were unuaccustomed to (and therefore less wary about) a Human presence was probably a major factor involved in this. One piece of supporting evidence is the fact that in the case of North America the 'megafauna' species that survived were almost all ones that were themselves fairly recent immigrants from the lands across the Bering land-bridge where humans had already been active for longer...
So, do you think that maybe our region also went through such a stage? That would help to explain why we have so many of the species of larger animals that could have arrived from one or more of the more "Earthlike" realities' versions of Europe, Asia and North America at relatively recent dates, and so few 'endemic' species of large animals, despite the fact that there has presumably been at least some evolution from native or earlier-immigrant stocks occurring here. It would also allow for the presence of some species of large animals that don't also exist in RL, as survivors of the earlier "indigenous" fauna, and would probably also mean that most species of small animals present aren't the same as the ones occupying equivalent niches in the relevant RL ecosystems.
Your opinions?