Questions tagged [environment]
For questions about an environment or aspects of it such as geographical, atmospheric or climate.
817
questions
3
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1answer
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Could vulcanic activities make polar regions more inhabitable?
My basic idea is a polar region in a planet that, for whatever* reason, has a obscene amount of geothermic activity. The question is, will this be enough to create a micro-climate large enough to ...
5
votes
1answer
122 views
What kind of wing shape might a butterfly develop for regular over-ocean flight?
I'm currently building a whimsical children's fantasy world; nothing needs to be 100% accurate or believable to real life, but I do want the creatures I'm creating to seem thought out for the world ...
1
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4answers
129 views
What Could Create the Remaining Two Types of Single-Biome Planets?
There have been numerous questions in this SE about single-biome planets popularized in the Star Wars mythos. Despite the criticisms, these worlds are plausible, and they all involve the right ...
2
votes
1answer
100 views
Is it possible to go from tree climbing to hiding in sand like some sandlions do
Is this evolutionary path possible with this creature because I don't know what would be in order to go from a creature that lives in the trees to living in a treeless environment. I had an idea that ...
0
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1answer
115 views
Can life be diverse if they had evolved from different or multiple ''basic'' body plans or multiple ancestors?
Okay, Okay so I know my fair share of convergent evolution, foster rule etc. now I'm wondering because I have three creatures
(a insect like creature a herbivore and carnivore I'll send images they ...
3
votes
4answers
210 views
Can a pangea like continent have diverse life and climates?
In my story, a group of scientific explorers go on a expedition to a planet, and I don't know if it should be a super continent because of the diverse life there could be. There are deserts, forest, ...
1
vote
1answer
118 views
I am making a creature with sloth like claws and need to know how it would be used for climbing trees and walking
My question is about my creatures.So in my world i have these creatures that have bladed claws on each leg think like a sloths claws they have 6 limbs in total two strong arms to move from tree to ...
2
votes
4answers
123 views
What kind of sea conditions would my 'Warp' have that wouldstop submarines from being able to operate effectively?
In my creation of a semi-realistic armed forces for my world's main faction, I took the unrealistic decision to make a way of keeping battleships. To that end, I adapted my existing idea of creating a ...
8
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2answers
94 views
Ice coverage of a horizontal torus planet
How much ice would a torus planet be covered in if it rotated horizontally without a tilt such that its inner region never sees sunlight?
It's basically earth but as a torus and a completely '...
4
votes
1answer
140 views
What would the environment be inside a fish?
In the body of a massive fish, about 200 miles long, is an island around half that length. This island is made up of deposited minerals from the sea, including large amounts of ancient bones and ...
6
votes
3answers
201 views
An oasis in the vacuum?
I'm hoping that the following scenario is one of those "you'll never actually see that so don't bother looking for it" things Because Reasons™ but I want to look at whether, and how, it is ...
2
votes
1answer
99 views
More Moons = Brighter Nights?
Now, firstly, I understand that the moon reflects a portion of sunlight onto the night's surface; So if a planet had multiple moons--say two or three, how would the additional celestial mirrors affect ...
2
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4answers
190 views
What effect would large tree eating animals have on the ecosystem? Would trees dissapear?
While wood is made up of the same carbohydrates called cellulose, wood is held together by a complex molecule called lignin. This makes wood tough and hard to digest as part of the cellulose remains ...
5
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3answers
154 views
secret underground tunnel underneath the city that the emperor doesn't know about- is it possible?
in the draft of my story, there is a city which is the capital of an empire. the empire has conquered many territories, but underneath the city, there is underground tunnels.
the enemies infiltrate ...
4
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2answers
168 views
How to explain the presence of tropical rainforest and temperate forest at an equal latitude near the equator, in a fictional world?
That's the rough outline of my fantasy world. The entire location is somewhat shifted towards the Northern Hemisphere because you can't see the polar ice caps of the southern hemisphere.
Now, the dark ...
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1answer
93 views
Indicators of Ai Super Intelligence [closed]
Given the certain state of Ai, what indicators would show some level of ‘Super Intelligence’?
Here are some of my ideas of 'Super Intelligence' this is subjective, of course.
Able to operate on ...
3
votes
1answer
65 views
How would merfolk sustainably magically grow coral?
This question is a modified version of my earlier question, where I will clarify some of my worldbuilding.
In my world, merpeople are capable of manipulating coral by making it grow at a faster rate ...
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vote
4answers
595 views
What would stop megafauna from evolving in low gravity planets?
On planets with lower gravity than earth what might make carbon bases megafaun rarer than in our own planet?
The planets have a source of geothermic energy, solar energy, winds and oceans.
Sometimes ...
3
votes
2answers
92 views
What consequences could arise from merpeople magically growing coral?
In my fantasy world there are merpeople who have a magical ability to manipulate coral, they can make corals grow at a much faster rate than it naturally would, as well as control the shape it grows. ...
6
votes
3answers
158 views
Can a continent be completely desert?
I want my continent to be at least 90% desert. It has a square shape with several peninsulas. Kinda like Australia, but more than 3 times bigger and it's not flat(well it does have flat areas, but not ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
What would be an environment conducive to the evolution of varanids based Naga?
I already made this question Naga evolution based on varanids related with the viability of varanid nagas. Any ways here I let the most relevant part from that question to explain my reasonement.
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6
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2answers
83 views
In which kind of enviroment the frogs' "multiple legs parasite" could turn symbiotic?
There is a parasite which make different amphibians specially frogs and toads to get multiple extra limbs during the transition from tadpole to adult. The objetive of the parasite is to harm the host'...
2
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1answer
98 views
What would the climate and ecosystems be like if instead of water, land would be 71% of Earth's surface?
According to the Bureau of Reclamation, water covers about 71% of the Earth's surface. Everything from microbes in the ocean releasing greenhouse gases into the air, to the immense amount of water ...
3
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3answers
87 views
How does an animal bred to be a bioindicator function?
You're probably familiar with the use of canary during coal mining. At the slightest trace of poisonous gas the canary dies and the miners are warned. Well my story involves a small animal that was ...
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vote
6answers
206 views
What could cause wind power to not be viable
Is there any sort of reason that wind power could become more difficult to use/utilize?
I'm trying to think of reasoning that a desperate earth based society would switch to using extremely reckless ...
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17answers
2k views
How do you avoid running out of space due to magically created objects?
So this is an issue I have been thinking about for a while. Both in the fantasy world I'm making and in many examples of fantasy media magic users are able to bring in new amounts of physical matter ...
4
votes
1answer
141 views
Best shape and location of a piezoelectric plant?
Members of the electric bacteria (Shewanella) genus possess capabilities allowing the use of a variety of other electron acceptors for respiration. These include thiosulfate, sulfite, or elemental ...
3
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1answer
167 views
Planetary tilting bad?
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-goldilocks-planets-tilt-complex-life.amp
This article says (rather poorly) that only a relatively small axial tilt of a planet like with the Earth could be beneficial to ...
4
votes
2answers
136 views
Are there any ways to move rainfall in the oceans to land?
The Earths oceans receive more precipitation than the land. Much of this precipitation happens in ecological dead zones such as the central pacific, southern Indian Ocean etc. So the precipitation ...
3
votes
1answer
141 views
Planet enabling societies evolving separately and suddenly comming into contact
I'm working on a planet design which makes it feasible for several human-like societies to emerge and evolve separately, up to a point where they are capable to interact with one another directly with ...
11
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10answers
4k views
Terraforming Antarctica: Is it possible to make it habitable without harming the Earth?
Let me explain what I mean by terraforming. Let's say we want Antarctica to be like Scandinavia or Finland. People from all over the Earth would colonise it and build the "United States of ...
3
votes
1answer
42 views
What are the limits on increasing atmospheric pressure on an ammonia planet to get liquid ammonia?
I have an ammonia world, I.e., ammonia is a solvent. It is tidally locked to its Sun. To counter low temperatures, I can either have a hot core or high atmospheric pressure. The size of plant is earth ...
3
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1answer
159 views
Is it possible for my continent to be in one of the black bordered areas of Pangea?
Is it possible for my continent millions of years ago to have been in one of the black-bordered areas of Pangea without changing anything in modern-day after all continents have split. By without ...
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2answers
99 views
Is it possible for land to be split up by climate? [closed]
Is it possible for a continent to be slit up by climate? For example, one part is desert, another is rainforest and another one is a savanna. I got this idea from an author I've read who split her ...
7
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2answers
454 views
Could there be trash on one specific part of a continent without humans on it?
In my continent (On Earth), there is one specific part of the land that is pretty much all covered in trash and waste, and the surrounding bodies of water are also polluted and so are part of the ...
2
votes
2answers
73 views
Creating a new, reliable, global wind pattern using space mirrors
My basic knowledge of wind patterns are that they blow from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure.
I want to put large mirrors in space to reflect sunlight constantly onto Peru and Vietnam/...
3
votes
2answers
117 views
Fake, Heatless Sun-like object hovering over a person on Earth, how deadly it would be?
Above the Crimson King in my story is a sun-like paetheon-sized asteroid (5.8 km in diameter) that follows him and never sets.
This is not an asteroid actually but i call it false sun and it appears ...
2
votes
1answer
283 views
What impact would it have had if BFCs had been adopted instead of CFCs?
In the late 1920s, Thomas Midgley, Jr. improved the process of synthesis and led the effort to use chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs, as refrigerants: to replace ammonia (NH3), chloromethane (CH3Cl), and ...
5
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2answers
266 views
How do you map the climates and biomes on a tidally locked planet with no Coriolis Effect?
I've been looking through some videos and reading up on mapping out climates and biomes for fictional worlds very similar to Earth (Artifexian's videos have been a huge help), but I have been curious ...
4
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4answers
243 views
How would a corrosive sea not erode the foundations for islands?
My world consists of a large number of islands laid out in a hexagonal pattern, each one circular and large enough to support a small community. At the center of each island an obelisk sticks out of ...
4
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3answers
125 views
How the environment affects height
I was always curious about that one - regarding humans, not other species - how different environments affect height? Are people living in the mountains shorter that those living in the jungle or the ...
4
votes
1answer
196 views
How would the ocean smell if there were no life in it?
My characters are on a planet with no life that somehow has a weakly breathable atmosphere. They're on a beach and they note the smell. This is salt water so maybe the smell is different from, say, a ...
12
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4answers
233 views
Sand Plankton. Is it possible?
In many Sci Fi and Fantasy worlds, the deserts are filled with giant megafauna that swim through dunes of loose sand. The issue with this depiction of course is not just the size of said sand ...
3
votes
1answer
106 views
Copper Eating Giant Spiders? [closed]
"...100 Million Years Ago, Following the Glaciation that killed off most fish, a new dominant Phyla emerged. The Spider-Bats, as they are called, were giant spiders with 10 legs that were roughly ...
9
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5answers
2k views
Environmental effects of destroying all petroleum refineries
Jormungandr, the Snakebot of Doom, has unleashed its 6.8 metric ton railgun rounds upon the world's 700 or so petroleum refineries over the space of forty-five minutes. Its goal is to put the ...
11
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6answers
2k views
A planet without the materials to make jet engines -- plausible? [closed]
A continuation of Are there *plausible* planetary conditions where jet aircraft just don't have much advantage over propeller-driven aircraft?
OBJECTIVE: A planet where propeller-driven aircraft ...
5
votes
2answers
159 views
Could Plasma be used by a monster to detect prey?
I have a monster in mind (based on something I saw in a dream) that is blind and deaf but finds prey by sensing faint electrical currents. It uses naturally generated plasma bursts to enhance ...
2
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8answers
462 views
How can technological advances in green energy be less efficient in mana extraction?
A war-mage named Alexander Oluchenko Cornelius has aspirations for ruling the multiverse, invading world after world to conquer territory and expand his empire. The technology of this vast army is ...
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3answers
113 views
What Environmental Factors Would Lead To The Evolution Of A Large, Warrior Homonid Race?
I'm working on a story that involve numerous types of species being pitted against one another, each one similar to humans but differing due to an evolutionary "theme".
These "themed&...
10
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5answers
2k views
Natural and affordable way to dye hair in medieval period?
In a fantasy setting, largely based on the European medieval period, red hair is perceived as the sign of the devil.
This is much like how red haired woman were prosecuted for being a witch in history....
