We are building a funciotning fantasy ecosytem.
Le't start from the bottom. What is at the base of food pyramid in a desert?
>>43443372
People.
>>43443372
Sunlight/Plants
What if the entire desert is actually the "surface" of an inland sea, capped by a gelatinous "top" comprised of billions of small amoeba-like organisms that filtered the water underneath and, over time, the deposited salt, sand and other particulates formed a layer on top of them that appears to be your standard desert.
Dig into the dunes and you'll find clusters of silver, gold, salt. Dig deep enough and you'll hit the spongy, smooth and slightly sticky gel. One can harvest this gel as it makes an incredible water filtration system, or simply wring the water out of the block of material you've just harvested. If you drill deep enough into this gel, you can pump out the pure water being covered by the gel.
That is the base food source, the water-rich gelatin that nourishes both huge and tiny alike, as well as the occasional oasis "naturally" created by tube-like organisms that intentionally pump the liquid up to the surface, encouraging predator and prey to congregate at it's waters and feast on thetoxin-lacedfruit and waters, whereupon they fall in and gradually digest.
>>43443551
Done!
I believe chinese discovered water bodies under the gobi desert and are suspecting there are some under sahara and all other deserts.
TO reach so deep the pumping plant must be enormous. Smaller creatures ofetn live inside creating the a symbiotic construct called "dungeon".
>>43443551
That is actually really badass. More?
![4e5e532e25bc1DSC01828_large_medium[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/G36KfGX.jpg "4e5e532e25bc1DSC01828_large_medium[1].jpg")
In the desert live a species of tiny winged ants. These ants are gold in color, and at a casual glance they are indistinguishable from grains of sand.
To escape the sweltering heat of the desert, these ants live in colonies that penetrate deep underground. Most large colonies are situated above a subterranean water source, and because of this they have become a symbol of good luck and prosperity.
If you ever follow a trail of ant back to their colony, you'll have likely discovered a good location for a water well. Water is such a prized and valuable resource in the desert that the location of ant colonies can be sold to water barons for large sums of gold.
Some ant colonies can number in the hundreds of billions. Swarms from these massive colonies can be mistaken for sand storms from afar. These ant swarms can by miles wide and last for days on end. Becoming lost within an ant storm has been the death of many wandering nomads and unprepared adventurers.
While the ants are normally harmless, local legend wars that they can be manipulated by dark magic. It is rumored that witches and vengeful spirits can command vast armies of carnivorous ants that will eat the flesh of anything foolish enough to be caught in their path.
>>43443588
>That is actually really badass. More?
Honestly? I never thought that far, however I imagine bio-luminescence might be a thing for the plant life to aid animals in finding their fruit or flowers.
>>43443641
>ant sand storm
Fucking christ get the bug spray
>>43443641
Oh dear.
>>43443551
Fucking awesome.
>>43443641
Fucking terrifying.
Around the dunes, small herds of Sandfleas graze on insects and plants in the desert.
These stand about a meter tall and will run and hop from any dangers that may present themselves.
The creature is coveted in the area for its sweet tasting meat and hollow bones which are used as instruments by the surrounding tribes
>>43443839
>ant sand storm
the cloud of death.
Being in the air for days they get extremely hungry.
They will devour anything the wind throws them at.
Some of them have spit acid and when hit explode.
>>43443551
Nope.
How do the micro-organism produce food without photosynthesis?
>>43445942
They filter the nutrients from the water
>>43446062
There are no nutrients in water, dumbass.
>>43445942
enrgy is in the water...
Then big plants can funcition as giant thermic machine (Carnot heat engone)
Hot surface, cold underlake.
No idea how they evoled to this, but they could totaly obtain energy from this.
>>43446085
Wow, hostile much? Why couldn't there be minerals in the water that can be used as nutrients?
>>43445942
Chemosynthesis.
>>43446094
>>43445942
>>43446062
>>43446085
The water below contains energy. I mean some sort of protein is made by prehistoric events.
THe problem is if the water already contian nutrients why would the ants/plants have contact with the surface, can't they just live inside the water below?
The answer is of course:something scarier and nastier lurks below.
>>43446131
That's where they absorb radiation right?
>>43446094
heat isn't food.
>>43446103
minerals are not food.
>>43446157
So then enlighten me on how bacteria can survive off of the heat generated by oceanic thermal vents?
>>43446149
no man, chemicals.
>>43446193
Oh, damn. I just saw chemo and thought radiation. What makes it even worse is that I'm going to pursue chemistry/genetics majors in university.
>>43445942
Chemosynthesis
>>43446085
Organic compounds are most def present in freshwater you prole
>>43446405
Yeah, cause they are composed of DECAYING ORGANIC MATTER you unflappable jackass
>>43446157
But minerals are vital nutrients. Do you know of any organism that doesn't require minerals?
>>43446436
This can be the basis of a food chain, and the origin of the life that started it could have used chemosynthesis instead of photo. You're dumb
>>43445942
Electrosynthesis.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25894-meet-the-electric-life-forms-that-live-on-pure-energy/
They use the electricity that happens from the moving sand grains on top, and the water below them as a ground. A colony about as thick as your fingertip to your elbow would be a very old colony indeed.
>>43443372
Brine shrimp and flies. They survive on water that seeps up from a deep water tablet, but it seeps up through salt and nitrogen. The water itself is too salty and acidic for most living things, save for the brine flies and shrimp, who survive by eating the algae that grow on rocks under the water.
>>43443551
What he >>43445942 said. There's no inflow of energy in this system. It can't be stable.
>>43446094
Nature is yet to find a way of directly absorbing thermal energy into metabolism. In fact, if there was one - life would have no need of these dumb things like planets to form. Space vacuum would be abundant with life forms.
>>43446062
Said nutrients need to get into water from SOMEWHERE for that. In the ocean, said filtered nutrients that most Crustacea live off are microscopic algae and whatever microorganisms that eat the algae, so - photosynthesis as the cornerstone. Ain't no such thing here. They COULD be living of lakes of ancient fossil organic mass (literally petrol), but as all those environmentalists remind us 15 times a day - FOSSIL FUELS ARE A FINITE RESOURCE! Such an ecosystem (fucking millions of tons of amoebae) would digest however enormous lake of petrol in a matter of a few years.
>>43446103
>>43446131
>>43446173
>Why couldn't there be minerals in the water that can be used as nutrients
If we're talking chemosynthesis here - cannot work unless there are thermal vents on the bottom of the desert-ocean in question. Chemosynthesis don't survive off heat. As this guys' >>43446193 picture correctly shows, chemosynthesis is based on oxidation of sulfur and ferrum. The only source of non-oxidized sulfur and ferrum (so that the bacteria can oxidize it themselves and get energy in process) is below the Earth crust, where there's no oxygen that would swiftly oxidize the shit out of anything without any organic middle man.
Now, if we just dissolve a bunch of molecular sulfur and iron in the water, it would turn into oxides very fast. Well unless there's no oxygen in that water, but that would make any life larger than a bacteria impossible.
Luckily. thermal vents provide the surface with a ton of hydrogen sulfide and other shit ripe for organic oxygenation, allowing for existence of chemosynthetic organisms.
>>43447003
What if the amoebic sea is dormant for that exact reason, perhaps even dead? Algal blooms can fuck over an ecosystem while being a potentially "natural" occurrence, and in the case of an inland sea rapidly becoming desert, the presence of these amoebas could be the thing that tipped the natural scales.
Or the amoebic sea has a means of reaching the surface, perhaps as the sand rose tendrils that "spat out" the sand (much like bivalves or a type of endoplasmic reticulum) rose with it, and as the amoebic sea suffered from the decrease in photosynthesis, mutant strains of the amoeba that allowed photosynthesis in these filter stalks thrived.
This is of course ignoring the potential for symbiotic relationships between plants and the amoebic sea, where one receives water and the other receives nutrients.
>>43446520
Sometimes I just wish that popular science could just crawl away and die in some hole. Uneducated people at least tend to understand their state of ignorance. They can learn sometime later. This bullshit however pollutes the world with people equally as ignorant, but without any chance of educating themselves as they believe that "SCIENCE BYATCH"-sensationalist media already provided them with the sacred knowledge of How The World Works. This is cancer.
Back on topic - no. Geobacter do not live of magically snatching electrons from direct electrical current. That's not how it works. That's not how any of it works. Not to mention that static electricity cannot produce a current. It's in the name - STATIC. Only singular high-voltage discharges for you.
>>43447156
>What if the amoebic sea is dormant for that exact reason, perhaps even dead
Now, that makes sense. A desert atop of a giant mass of dead amoebae that ran out of substrate. If their gelatinous state is provided by some semi-fantastic protein that prevents water from evaporating from the gel, while sand blanket prevents oxygen diffusion so there's nothing that could degrade the organic mass, it could work like some nigh-impenetrable fossil, that can be a source of both water and nutrients but is VERY hard to access by biological means. Like say, only a few species of fungi that use rare symbiotic bacteria are capable of sloooooowly using this Deep Gel to sustain themselves, creating tiny oasis around quicksands of surface-reaching Gel, maintaining a tight ecosystem of fungal groves and whatever survivalist organisms that eat them. Groves are very slow to spread, as they depend on presence of rare bacteria, so they can't overwhelm the supply of gel.
And meanwhile, humans can carefully use mechanical means to obtain small amounts of clear water from the gel, sustaining themselves and basic animal husbandry.
This can work.
>>43447652
>humans can carefully use mechanical means to obtain small amounts of clear water from the gel, sustaining themselves and basic animal husbandry.
Why stop there? I'm sure an intrepid individual might realize it's possible to use the gel as a filtration system, dirtying the gel but producing pure, clean water.
And since it sounds like this shit is thick, you could use the gel in all sorts of applications related to insulation, shock absorption or even heat dissipation. Biological aerogel, anyone?
>>43447804
Bonus points:
Not!Bedouins living in said desert worship the Gel as decaying pieces of the body of a long dead god, which explains their isolationist practices and unwillingness to provide any dirty kafirs with the precious substance.
Extra bonus points:
They are right. The dead gel mass was super-intelligent when it was alive, and the desert is still suffering from psyonic aftereffects, like nightmares, hallucinations and prophetic revelations.
>>43446157
>heat isn't food.
heat is energy.
light isn't food either, but plants go just fine, if they have enough minerals in the soil.
>>43447003
>Nature is yet to find a way of directly absorbing thermal energy into metabolism. In fact, if there was one - life would have no need of these dumb things like planets to form. Space vacuum would be abundant with life forms.
Dude you are fuckoff wrong. Space is a great insulatorbbecause there us nothing to transmit the heat
>>43447652
Okay, so you don't know how electricity works, and just went by the word. Yes, two parts, Static, mean lacking in motion, and electricity. Static electricity is just like any other electricity; an electron imbalance happens and it wants to correct itself. Do you know why it's static? Because it has nowhere to go. If given a chance it goes to earth because it has a higher electrical potential than most anything else. Regular water accepts electrons pretty readily too. Now I said regular water, not pure water or de-ionized, just so you don't bitch about that as well. Now, I never said static electricity, I said electricity produced by the rubbing sand. This happens in real life, sandstorms have been known to produce massive lightning storms. The sand has a way to discharge the slight difference due to the electron breathing bacteria, and they have a way to discharge that into the water. I suppose now you'll complain about the lack of anything to build their bodies. Well, that can come from any carbon based molecules that happens to be in the water. The water will probably not be pure, and carbon is everywhere. Also, never said Geobacters; it could be anything that uses a similar method to absorb energy. Stop being a wet blanket.
Since this is fantasy, couldn't there be a magical source of energy beneath the underground ocean?
>>43448147
That's not what I meant.
>>43448166
>Now, I never said static electricity, I said electricity produced by the rubbing sand. This happens in real life, sandstorms have been known to produce massive lightning storms.
Exactly. Lighting IS a singular discharge after a buildup of static. It's not a direct current. You are speaking of lifeforms LITERALLY EATING LIGHTNINGS.
>the electron breathing bacteria
That's not how it works.
>Also, never said Geobacters
The article linked was about them.
> it could be anything that uses a similar method to absorb energy
>That's not how it works.
>>43447652
>Sometimes I just wish that popular science could just crawl away and die in some hole. Uneducated people at least tend to understand their state of ignorance. They can learn sometime later. This bullshit however pollutes the world with people equally as ignorant, but without any chance of educating themselves as they believe that "SCIENCE BYATCH"-sensationalist media already provided them with the sacred knowledge of How The World Works. This is cancer.
GET AWAY FROM MY SCIENCE NORMIES REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
>>43448516
Lightning also only happens when there's a mile or 2 of insulation, like air, and it needs to do such a massive discharge. The situation described is an area of slight negative charge (sand) to an area of slight positive charge (water) and a way to travel between areas (electrical bacteria). That is exactly how that works. Just saying that's not how it works doesn't prove anything or provide anything, other than you being a wet blanket.
The foundation of the ecosystem of the desert is a species of extremely hardy "fungi" (for a lack of a better term) that forms wast networks of hair thin tendrils all across the desert, storing massive amounts of water within clusters of fungal tendrils that exist deep underneath the sand. The water originates both from deep water reservoirs underneath the sand, as well as from the moisture that collects on the sand during mornings, which the tendrils of the fungi quickly absorb, before the moisture evaporates.
The fungus exists in a symbiosis with various bacteria, that can turn all sorts of biological, and carbon based detritus found in the desert sand into usable organic compounds for the fungus, while in turn, the fungus supplies the bacteria with water.
The fungus uses the heat of the surface of the sand, as well as oxygen it that gets within the upper layers of the desert's surface to produce a sugar like compound from the organic materials the bacteria symbiotes produce.
Because of this fungus that is common all across the desert, the desert itself is inhabited by large amounts of creatures, that either feed directly upon the fungus, or otherwise benefit from the life giving properties it has on the desert.
Ok so I like the dead sea under the desert idea. For some reaso I immagne natives calling the dead god "Princess". And psionic winds roam around the desert.
And we have coonies of golden ants.
Which of course have gold inside them, and are hunted by the natives.
![1200x751_2412_Sandworms_2d_sci_fi_dune_picture_image_digital_art[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/XnXimzp.jpg "1200x751_2412_Sandworms_2d_sci_fi_dune_picture_image_digital_art[1].jpg")
>>43443372
>What is at the base of food pyramid in a desert?
The spice.
It extends life.
It extends consciousness.
>>43451321
And the sandfleas can feed on the ants
>>43443551
>>43447156
>>43447652
Everything underneath the sea is dead... except for the ancient civilization of merman who engineered the amoebae layer in order to terraform their landless planet. They took a big hit to the population they can sustain by doing this, and their empire is a husk of what it previously was.
Why are they terraforming the planet to create land though?
I think in an ld egyptian thread /tg/ made an awesome reverse phoenix.
The ice rock is very cold. Around her nest a mountain of ice forms naturaly, and around it a ring of fertile land, despite being in the middle of the desert.
>>43448147
>thinking heat needs a medium to be transferred
>being this retarded
>>43458341
While heat can radiate through empty space (ie. heat from the sun), it can transfer between atoms of matter much more easily and quickly
>>43458341
>posting tom cruise on 4chan
fuck off reddit scum
I think I've got a handle on this ecosystem, but I need help with how oases are made.
I was thinking of giant Wurms that mostly skim the algae layer, thus being almost constantly coated in algae while leaving a trail of the stuff in their wake. For [insert reason here], they make brief, near vertical trips to the surface, spreading algae in their wake.
The exit hole surges forth with water pumped up by the algae, and the sunlight is reflected further down to maintain the algae layer. The water attracts desert plants to stabilize the oasis.
By the time the wurm reenters the sand, most of the algae has fallen off, and the reentry hole lacks enough support to maintain itself before it is covered by the sands.
sound alright?
>>43443372
Dune Crabs
Small burrowing crustaceans that live in large groups spread across the desert sands. They feed upon the small amounts of organic particulates and plant matter that lies within the upper layers of the sands, along with any carrion they can happen upon. Usually more active in the cool desert nights, searching for food or collecting dew on their feathery antennae, it is not uncommon to see large colonies move just under the surface during the day. While most colonies contain only several hundred, individuals ranging in size from 2 or 3 centimeters, there have been instances of super clusters forming during the crab's mating season, where in several thousand individuals may group together. During this time it has been cited that entire dunes can spring to life in a sea of movement if the multitude is disturbed.
A delicacy when boiled or sautéed, though large numbers are required to make a meal.
https://youtu.be/h_U4jv-CIeg
>>43459320
You realise that mocking the shit out of tom cruise is what kickstarted 4chan's ascent into the mainstream?
>>43449134
I'm sorry, are you trying to say that >>43449682 is not a delusional cargo cultist?
Because I don't see how can anyone can justify existence of the modern techno-barbarians with their pseudoscience.
>>43460138
At least they're trying. While I agree that wrong knowledge is more harmful than no knowledge, at least all the popsci stuff gets people interested in science in the first place, and hopefully some of those people will go on to educate themselves. Either way there's no reason to scream at people for being ignorant when it's hardly their fault for not being given the knowledge or the drive to discover it in the first place.
In regards to the question at hand, static electricity is simply the buildup or removal of electrons on a surface - sand blowing over the surface will take electrons with it like a cloth rubbed over glass. That's all you'd need to set up an electrostatic potential, which the bacteria could (very theoretically) utilise.
So Nagas and Lamias that roam the roam the desert are mermaids from the undergound ocean?
>>43460138
Whatever, wet blanket, gonna have fun over here, you continue with your rage and maybe you learn to not be such a killjoy. Look at me! I'm gonna make my magical desert work in ways that can only be kinda explained by science!! WOOOOO!
>>43459719
Wurms burst forth to expel waste. Thus, normally near lifeless sand suddenly has a ton of nutrients. Or maybe it's for spawning. Their eggs and sperm are light enough to ride the winds like plants' or mushrooms'. So their young don't over populate the water system, and the clouds of eggs get eaten by predators providing more base line food.
>>43460138
Oh, also, I love how you don't bother with anything other than name calling. No statements of fact or scenarios, just what is effectively your opinion. Good argument.
>>43447933
This idea is wonderful
>>43463390
if the thread is still a bit up later I'll do a bit of collating.
Also, fungi that draw up water from below to create quicksand pits, said pits possibly created by invading and taking over former oases.
>>43443641
imagine a druid commanding an ant-storm
>>43467497
>Desert fungi
Im no expert here but. I think there are no desert mushrooms. Not even in oasis. I believe its due to the extreme heat and arid weather but someone else might have more knowledge on this
>>43470832
http://www.kcet.org/news/redefine/rewild/fungi/hard-summer-rains-bring-desert-mushrooms.html
Today I learnt that mushrooms can apparently live in deserts.
Basically they chill under the sand slowly growing with what water they can get, and then when it rains, boom fungal spores everywhere. Wait for next rain, rinse and repeat.
>>43471962
Well i was about to post that we could create a mushroom that could grow specifically in deserts but apparently mother nafure had already done this lol
On the other hand. We could change it a bit to be bigger and edible. Or the main source of food for another species. Maybe... giant desert turtles or desert crabs or something
>>43472932
Believe it or not, Mother Nature does some pretty freaky shit.
>>43471962
With the desert rains, the desert comes to life. Mushrooms bloom across the sands, seeking to spread their spores before the inevitable insect tide that will consume them. The same insect tide that then gets consumed by rain frogs, amphibians that burrow in the sand and only come surface after heavy rain to feed and mate. While the smaller ones aren't much for eating, the older frogs can be as big a a human's head, and have enough protein on them to keep a man fed for an entire day.
In the desert, water is life. All such life is hidden deep beneath the sands. A millenia old layer of amoeba lives its life filtering minerals from the sands above and keeping the water below. Such water is so pure, and has been so thoroughly constricted by the sands and amoeba, that no fish can survive in it. In the land beneath the sands, all that live are amoeba and Wurms.
Wurms on their part live across most of the desert, but spend most of it skimming the amoeba for food and safety, as no predators can come for it there.
However, once in a blue moon a Wurm makes for the surface in a near vertical path, leaving a slime covered trail in its wake. It cleans itself of the various wastes accumulated upon its body before burrowing back into the sands. The sands have thus been seeded with all manner of food for desert creatures, and it is here that the amoeba recoup upon their losses, for the slimy tunnels still teem with life.
Water surges forth from these tunnels. At first only a trickle, but as more amoeba float upwards, so does their pumping strength increase, until a geyser forms at the tunnel mouth. This initial surge of water serves as the foundation of a bountiful oasis, drawing creatures from near and far. The light from the sun and fertilizer from the creatures all goes down and reaches the amoeba from here.
>>43477472
But there are other things that live within the sands. Desert fungi spend most of their lives dormant, but during the ever so rare seasons of rain, they blossom into massive structures, releasing streams of fungal spores. These spores land wherever they can, eating what they can find before going back into hibernation. Unless they land in an oasis. When enough desert fungi lands in the pit of an oasis, they sink down into the amoeba and feed off of them. Slowly, they invade the network and supplant it with their own, until the amoeba cuts itself off from their doomed brethren and stops pumping water.
For awhile, all seems normal, but eventually the waters will become turgid and infected. Fungal poisoning becomes common among the animals, and the former oasis will slowly drain away. What water remains is covered from above by sand and kept afloat from below by the fungal network, creating the conditions necessary for quicksand. Unfortunate prisoners will find themselves dying either from thirst, fungal infection, or bacterial infection from freeloaders who help decompose the bodies faster. As such, travelers are wary of trusting old desert maps, and take great care not to pass by any oases right after a storm.
>>43443585
>under sahara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garamantes
Basically, yeah, there is water under deserts. But it's finite.
>>43443372
>what is at the base of the food pyramid in the desert?
Are you people fucking blind? It's SAND.
>>43443551
I like this. As for energy sources and "how no photosynthesis", the energy input into this system would come from the surface fauna:
>Animals live on desert surface
>Animal dies, harsh arid climate precludes rot
>Corpse desiccates and is covered with sand
>Corpse gradually sinks in the sand until it hits the barrier of the massive subterranean jelly-blob
>Jelly-blob engulfs desiccated corpse
>Adds moisture and begins slow digestion, corpse doesn't rot because desiccation sterilized it
>>43478267
That doesn't really work. An ecosystem can't be a closed loop; there must be primary producers.
>>43478365
The jelly would be the primary producer, creating nutrients from broken-down corpses. Then parasitic "wellspring" creatures like >>43443551 described would pump that to the surface.
>>43478423
>primary producer, creating nutrients from broken-down corpses
That's a direct contradiction.
>>43478444
Sorry, my bio is rusty. Thermoautotrophs maybe? Using geothermal heat from the depth?
>>43478267
>>43478444
Throw in that the amoeba also eat plant detritus and we're golden.
Or maybe the fungi is the primary producer?
>>43478481
Primary producers don't "eat" anything. That's the point. They take stuff that is the end-product of the metabolism of other beings, toss in a bunch of energy from elsewhere and make it available again. All metabolic processes remove energy from compounds until they're squeezed dry, thermodynamically. Primary producers replenish that. So they can't eat other life, because it would be a steadily diminishing cycle (no conversion process is 100% efficient). There are two known processes that are utilized by primary producers on Earth: Photosynthesis, and chemoautotrophy. Maybe something involving radioactive decay might also be possible, but it's doubtful.
>>43478480
>Thermoautotrophs
That's a misleading term because heat is not enough to drive an ecosystem. Energy can only be used for work in a heat gradient and it's pretty damn hard to get a good one in the dimensions of a cell. What extremophiles near deep sea vents use for primary production are the chemicals they release.
>>43443551
>What if the entire desert is actually the "surface" of an inland sea, capped by a gelatinous "top" comprised of billions of small amoeba-like organisms
Oh hey i read expedition too.
>>43447003
Tell me then, how comes there are lifeforms living kilometers below the surface? There are no thermal vents, no photosynthesis, and yet they are there. Mocking us.
>>43443372
>that pic
It might not be of very high quality, but I love this take on Leto with the frame and the size and shit. Arms a bit big though.
>>43446157
>minerals are not food
chemosynthesis doesn't exist, honest!
>>43447003
>>43445942
niggers it eats shit that falls into the oases it makes
how is that not food/energy
dumb motherfuckers looking for holes in cool ideas that aren't there
also see plan B) a wizard did it
it's how slimes work usually
>>43478536
>radioactive decay might also be possible, but it's doubtful.
No itsn't. It really exists. There is a fungus living in the very core of Chernobyl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus
>>43480171
Radiation. They seriously survive by absorbing the energy of decaying radioactive isotopes.
>>43480470
So what about an underground sea full of radioactivity spewed by some far away sources straight out of volcanic vents?
>>43480480
Radiation, magic, whateves. Heck, the jelly layer could be what's keeping the magication in check, keeping it from getting to the surface where it could create new creatures. Oasis are where the magication can escape and causes monsterous growth and strange mutations. This is where giant scorpions and sphinx come from. The pools give off an eerie glow during the night, and the plants may or may not have carnivorous tendencies, but their fruits may or may not have healing powers. Or it'll kill you.
>>43445942
geothermal vents at the bottom of the subsurface ocean
>>43477518
isn't all underground water?
>inb4 fracking
>>43478267
energy sources can be the planet's core, plenty of nutrients and heat down there
>>43480809
Most water tapped by wells lies in the unconfined aquiferous region that is regenerated by rainfall and external inflow. Fossil water, like under the Sahara, has been trapped there for ages with no sources and no drains. You can fuel your agriculture my mining it, but it will run out sooner or later and then you're fucked. It is very much alike to oil.
>>43480268
Neat.
