Biome List

Programming-wise, I'm not sure how we're handling lakes/ponds, but they are sub-biomes...
You bring up a good point in that a lake has more niches than a pond. We might have to do some new math for water feature biomes to determine their niche number, as sucession theory is not quite so neat with those...

Okay, I've got two alien biome ideas. Sorry if they're too specific for the game or not scientifically feasible enough, I'm not well versed in biology.

Magma Glow:
Not really a fully fleshed out biome, but basically, the idea is that on a highly volcanic planet where little sunlight filters through the smoke, etc., plants don't depend on light from their star to photosynthesize, but light from glowing magma. These plants would probably need some way to deal with the extreme heat such as some way to remove excess heat or reflect it, or they could grow on high clefts far enough above the lava to keep cool. Alternatively, they could be thermosythesizers, as stated earlier in this thread. Plants would probably be small to avoid getting hit by splattering lava, and be able to regenerate quickly if hit, and would grow with their leaves or whatever pointing downwards at the lava instead of up like on Earth. Animal life would probably be scarce in such a harsh environment, making a low biodiversity.

Fungal/Bacterial Glow:
Same as magma glow, except plants don't depend on glow from magma, but from bioluminescent bacteria or fungi carpeting the ground. Unlike in magma glow, heat isn't an issue, so plants would probably have large leaves to maximize light intake, larger than Earth plants, as the light isn't as intense. Like magma glow, leaves would point downwards. As it would be easier to grow here than with magma, plants would probably be more plentiful, making a sort of upside down rainforest, with plants competing with each other to be as low as possible instead of as high as possible, making a solid mat on vegetation on the ground. As there isn't as much room to maneuver as in a regular rainforest, there would be less plants, making a lower biodiversity. Animals would probably have to be somewhat agile to move successfully through the thick growth, or else fly overhead, landing to obtain food, water etc.

Oh, just came up with another one based off of the Discovery Channel documentary Alien Planet. It's probably too specific for Thrive, but I'm just putting it out there.

Gel Ocean
If you've seen the documentary, you'll remember Darwin IV's remaining ocean was retained by a vast colony of microorganisms, making almost a gel that was possible to walk on. Large creatures walk across this gel, feeding on it as they go. I found it kind of unrealistic that the gel "preyed" on organisms, but I feel it could be photosynthetic, or it could feed off the remains of the creatures that died. Plants would likely be absent from this biome. Biodeversity would be very low, but creatures could grow to giant proportions based off of the huge amount of food.

Right. Filing these away for feasability discussion later.

For Magma glow, I would find that photosynthesizers would not really be present, (due to the fact that the light emitted from lava/magma is not great, as it is mostly made of things like silicon and iron, which conduct heat far more than they lose energy as light... Okay, chem lecture doesn't need to go here.) Thermosynthesizers, most likely, would be thriving. However, they would likely have wind-borne seeds of some sort - after all, volcanoes don't erupt every day, (there would be quite a bit of space betwen volcanoes) so they could have short life-cycles and act very much like terrestrial annual plants. Except that, rather than being killed off by frost, they could be killed by Magma.

Bioluminescence is fun. I don't know how the plants would be able to use the light of other plants (not a great range of spectrum there...) but this could easily be a cycle driven by decomposers. It would only reach sucession stage 1, however.

Gel sea... I'll get back to you on that. Algal blooms are huge, but they aren't generally thick enough to be that solid, and they aren't sustainable as is.... I might have to watch that now in order to see their logic and science behind that, because Discovery Channel is usually pretty good with that.

Which means... to the internet!

New biome ideas (I'm on a roll )
If Thrive life is only going to be on terran worlds, than just dismiss this. However, has the idea ever come up for life on gas giants? Carl Sagan's idea is my inspiration here.

Gas Giant- Upper Atmosphere
I don't think plants fit well in this ecosystem, but creatures could. Creatures would live in the upper atmosphere of the planet, having large gas bags for aiding in flight, perhaps having chambers similar to cephalopod propulsion, only with air instead of water. In place of herbivores, as there are no plants, would be creatures who filter fed through the atmosphere for photosynthetic microscopic organisms. They could have a large mouth like structures to gulp down large amounts of it at a time, kind of like whales feeding off of plankton. An alternative is they could have long, feathery organs trailing from their body to scoop up food from the air. Predatory creatures would have very different attack styles than creatures on Earth, their main goal in taking down their prey would be to target the gas chambers, basically making them immobile. Because of this, predatory animals would have spear like projections or something similar.

Gas Giant- Lower Atmosphere
As gas is under high pressure in the lower atmosphere, it is so dense it is liquid-like. Life here would more resemble aquatic creatures from Earth, "swimming" through the gasses, although it too could also use gas propulsion like upper atmosphere life. Actually, with these two biomes together, evolution to move between the two kind of makes sense. For example, life could start in the lower atmosphere, but some of it evolves more sophisticated gas bags to aid in flight rather than swimming.

Another one, this time inspired by the Star Wars planet Felucia.

Fungal Forest:
Occurs in moist areas with large amounts of dead organisms- such as a forest that was wiped out by disease.
Basically like a normal forest, except with giant species of fungi instead of plants. They feed off of the dead organisms, and when they die, they add to the layer that future generations feed off of.
For animal life I have no idea, I think this environment would be very open ended for them, although instead of herbivores, there would be fungivores (is there an actual term for that?)

Based off of the short documentary Extraterrestrial Blue Moon from National Geographic

Floating Forest
Occurs on low gravity worlds and/or dense atmosphere worlds. Plants have gas bags allowing them to float in the thick atmosphere. Larger species are tethered to the ground with stalks (kind of like kelp, only in air instead of water) while small plants float on the winds. The high density air makes flying animals more likely, including species far larger than flying animals on Earth. Large herbivores could feed like whales on the clouds of small plants.

Edit: Oh, just realized a similar biome was posted earlier in this thread.

Just thought of something if bodies of liquid besides water are going to be in the game. This isn't exactly a biome, but more of a concept that could grow into one.

We all know water is weird because it is less dense when solid so ice forms top down, right? This trait of water helps aquatic animals that are active during the winter survive because their food sources (plants, etc.) aren't covered in ice, and the ice helps protect the water from the cold air. But other liquids would freeze from the bottom up. How would life deal with that? Maybe aquatic plants would grow from the surface down so they don't freeze during the winter (winter temperatures would have to be different than on Earth, as different liquids have different freezing points) and have guards against the cold air. I don't think that's scientifically feasible enough, but that's my idea. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

tklarenb wrote:

Just thought of something if bodies of liquid besides water are going to be in the game. This isn't exactly a biome, but more of a concept that could grow into one.

We all know water is weird because it is less dense when solid so ice forms top down, right? This trait of water helps aquatic animals that are active during the winter survive because their food sources (plants, etc.) aren't covered in ice, and the ice helps protect the water from the cold air. But other liquids would freeze from the bottom up. How would life deal with that? Maybe aquatic plants would grow from the surface down so they don't freeze during the winter (winter temperatures would have to be different than on Earth, as different liquids have different freezing points) and have guards against the cold air. I don't think that's scientifically feasible enough, but that's my idea. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I think we decided there weren't any liquids that were enough like water to support life. It makes good alien ecosystem concepts, but there really isn't anything other than water that life can live in. (Which Roadkillguy will be quite pleased about )

I figured that, I just didn't know for sure, since I haven't been a part of the team for very long.

Thanks for trying your hand at a few biomes. You might want to take a whack at some earth biomes as well.

Well, I'm having trouble thinking of any more alien biomes, let alone earth biomes. It looks like you guys almost got that covered already, I can't think of any new ones for that. If I come up with any, though, I'll post them!

Oh, and I set up a thread on one of my buildings in Spore for ideas for biomes. I haven't gotten any good hits yet (I've had several), but maybe someone will come along with a good idea.

Water IS life. We will be messing around with atmospheres and such, though.

Also, book reccomendation for you, tklaren. "Manta's Gift" by Timothy Zahn. It's set on Jupiter, and it has gas-sac animals and plants like you just described. Also, Timothy Zahn = <3

Speaking of water, do you think that we will need to create separate biomes for areas that have different waterways(like rivers) running through them. Often rivers have effects on the surrounding environment, but is it significant enough to create different biomes for these areas?

Covered under "microbiomes..." hopefully. Scio and I are working on that... slowly. When I go home for Thanksgiving you'll probably end up getting a working concept for how we implement water biomes and microbiomes.

Earth one I found on Wikipedia

Cold Seep
Occur over fissures on the seafloor caused by tectonic activity. Oil and methane seep out of those fissures, get diffused by sediment, and emerge over an area several hundred meters wide. Reactions between methane and seawater create carbonate rock formations and reefs.
Similar to hydrothermal vents in that photosynthesis is not part of the ecology. Lifeforms mainly include extremophiles, although bivalves and tubeworms are also present.
Disappears when the methane stops seeping out, letting coral move in instead.

Endolithic Zone

Occurs in pores between mineral grains of rock. Organisms are only microscopic. They feed off of iron, potassium, or sulfur in the rock. Because there is little water, organisms in this environment have extremely slow reproductive cycles.

Volcanic Desert
Occurs in areas that, although they have enough precipitation to support plants, do not because of volcanic activity. Consequently, this would probably be a dead zone and act as a barrier in the game.

Laurel forest
Occurs in areas with high humidity and relatively stable and mild temperatures. They are characterized by tree species with evergreen, glossy, enlongated leaves, known as laurophyll or lauroide. The laurel evergreen temperate forest vegetation is characteristic of a climate regime with well defined seasons, but lacking in sharp contrast. The annual temperature variation is mild, without excluding winter frost, and rainfall is abundant well-distributed throughout the year, without a defined dry season.

Moorland
Are characterized by low growing vegetation on acidic soil and heavy fog. Are somewhat a transitionary biome, occurring when tundra retreats in the area between permafrost and the natural tree zone. Most moorlands have high biodiversity.
Heathland
Considered the same as Moorland, except it occurs in lower, warmer areas. Favored where climatic conditions are typically warm and dry, particularly in summer, and soils acidic, of low fertility, and often sandy and very free-draining; mires do occur where drainage is poor, but are usually only small in extent. Heaths are dominated by low shrubs, 0.2–2 m tall. Plant biodiversity is very high.

Oooh, goody.

Scio, Alaska, can I keep him?

I know you're working on the semi-arid biomes mostly right now, but I just realized the list still doesn't include some major tropical ones. Here's what I've got for that (source is wikipedia):

Tropical Rainforest
Occurs: Warm areas with large amounts of rainfall
Resources: Large amounts of rainfall
Climate: Hot and humid, large amounts of rainfall (between 175 cm and 200 cm) year round
Topography: Flat to hilly
Biodiversity: Extremely high (I don't know what your number scale is)
Autotroph niches: up to huge, although gargantuan is possible
Heterotroph niches: probably up to large

Peat swamp forest
Basically the same as above, except soil is waterlogged to the point where leaves and wood are prevented from decomposing, creating a thick layer of acidic peat.

Tropical Dry Forest
Similar to tropical rainforest, except these areas have distinct wet and dry seasons. Has high biodeversity, but less than that of rainforest.

Tropical Savanna
Occurs: warm areas
Resources: depends on the season
Climate: wet and dry seasons
Topography: flat
Biodiversity: Medium
Autotroph niche: tiny to small are most common, but sizes up to large do occur
Heterotroph niche: tiny to large, sometimes huge (sauropods, the largest dinosaurs, fit into the huge category, and they are thought to have lived on savannas)

Mysterious_Calligrapher wrote:

Oooh, goody.

Scio, Alaska, can I keep him?

Alright, but i'm not feeding him!

Another alien one! It's probably the least possible of the ones I've given so far, but here it is.

Lightning Realm
Occurs on worlds with lots of moisture and much more frequent lightning storms than on Earth (more on the order of Venus's electrical activity)
Organisms aren't photosynthesizers, but electrosynthesizers. I'm not exactly sure how that would work or if it's even possible in non mechanical life forms, but the only other alternative I've found in this thread so far is thermosynthesizers, so I thought I'd throw another one out there.
Anyways, electrosynthesizing plants grow in damp soil or pools of water to maximize electricity intake. Animals would probably have evolved somewhat resistant to lighting, or else take shelter when storms are overhead.

Based off of a biome given to me on my Biome Thread in Spore by DiloDilophosaur.

Here's a little biome that I came up with on the spot (Just like all my other ones)

Deadlands
Occurs: Where there is enough sunlight and heat to completely dessicate the lands.
Resources: Rocks, nothing much.
Climate: Incredibly hot, enough to evaporate bodies of water in minutes.
Topography: Somewhat hilly and mountanous, with long stetches of flat, unshaded terrain. This unshaded terrain would be rather deadly to all except the most adapted organisms.
Biodiversity: 0/1.
Autotroph Niches: Tiny to Small. They would be small, and heavily armored to prevent dessication.
Heterotroph Niches: Tiny to Small. Transient organisms may be larger, though they could not live year-round.
Other: Due to the intense heat, most water would occur under large overhangs, and some of the many caves, and as such the unshaded areas would be pretty desolate. The autotrophs might have long roots from those pools to the sunlight, or many other solutions.

Alright! It's good to be back. It seems there is another biome frequent flyer over here. Welcome to the... this!
I quite like the undergound glow idea. Tell me if this is any good.

Hey guys, just got back power from rather a cold and tree-destroying storm that has generally messed things up for everyone in my area. In apology for this event (Which I have no control over, i'm not that good a supervillain yet), here is a new biome! It is rather odd, but here it is.

Ridgelands
Occurs: Where there has been enough upheaval of the ground to create rather spiky and large rocky landscapes, often on mountains and plateaus that have withstood a recent earthquake, though can emerge in any place that has rather insane earthquakes.
Resources: Sunlight, rocks, very little to no soil, many aboveground caves.
Climate: Depends, can be very hot or cold, depending on where it has cropped up. Water would accumulate quickly though, due to the hard rock not absorbing it.
Topography: A large and spiky land, riddled with caves and flat expanses, formed out of dead rock, and very erratic looking.
Biodiversity: 1-2.
Autotroph Niches: Tiny to midsize, though they would have trouble establishing themselves on the rocks.
Heterotroph Niches: Tiny to midsize, as some of the smaller transient organisms could make themselves quite at home in the erratic landscape.
Other: The extreme rockiness would likely not last, and it would be eroded away by autotrophs at some rate, so this biome would end up lasting much shorter than many others. Though, i would like to think, it would be very fun to explore.

Thank you, come again.