 from what we’re accoustomed to at first glance, but only because they developed from their own unique mix of conditions. They are products from within the same matrix of physical proscesses, just shifted from what is found and called ‘normal’ on Earth. The greater the shift with in the matrix, the more uniusual they will seem, at first.
Equatorial Wet Forest
On worlds with low to medium axial inclination and moderate APST, we can expect to find wet forests in equatorial regions. This zone will have an average temperature 5ºC to 15ºC (9ºF to 27ºF) above the APST and a precipitation rate 50% greater than the planetary average. When compared with the planet’s polar region, the equatorial wet forest will have a greater variation between day and night temperatures, but would remain nearly constant, or only gradually changing on a day to day seasonal basis. Since precipitation would be relatively plentiful, the plant community would have to compete primarily for sunlight, as a result, some of the tallest plants on the planet would be growing here. If an aerial canopy develops, we could expect a wide variety of shade tolerant plants on the forest floor. The equatorial wet forests moist conditions would be ideal for bacterial and insect life, which would function to bring about the organic decomposition of plant and animal organic material.
Arid Desert Zone
In the high pressure zones above and below the Equatorial Wet Forest exist discontinuous belts of relative arid Desert. The extent of the Arid Desert across the planet’s land mass will depend on the planetary mass, APST and axial inclination. On our model worlds, any area receiving about 10 inches or less of annual rainfall may be considered an arid desert. Keep in mind that ‘annual’ refers to Earth’s 365 day year. If the model planet has a Sidereal Period twice Earth’s and day length remained the same) the arid desert would only receive half as much precipitation.
Arid Deserts on Earth occupy 14% of the terrestrial environment. They characteristically have a temperature range of 4ºC to 32ºC (39ºF to 89ºF) with an average of 23ºC (73ºF). The Arid desert has a hot, dry climate and is found to register the planets hottest surface temperatures. Plant life which has adapted to the dry, hot climate display biological adoptions for water collection and retention. On the hottest planets, many desert plants may display reverse phototropism; an hour after the sunrises, the plant may close its leaves, only to reopen them an hour or so before sunset. Succulent plants would have either a small leaf or no leaf at all, with photosynthesis occurring through the plant stem, as in the Barrel cactus and Saguaro cactus. The bulk of the trunk in these plant’s are composed of water storage cells; while the volume of the shoot is large, the surface area is small. This results in a large storage area for the areas biologically limiting factor, water, and a relatively small area from which they can lose their precious liquid reserves.
Non succulent plants will be modified with leathery leaves, thick cuticle layers on the outer surfaces of their leaves, they may have the ability to fold and curl, also leaves will likely be small. An example of a plant displaying many of these characteristics is the Creosote bush found commonly in the US southwestern arid desert.
In arid deserts, both succulent and non succulent plant species would have extensive root systems for water collection and potentially as locations for water storage.
Chemical inhibitors may also be used to maintain territory. This would result visually, in a more or less even spacing of the plants across the desert.
Other plants which have adapted to the Arid Desert might undergo their entire life cycle in that brief period when moisture was available. These ‘annuals’, with their fast growing shoots would die after the end of the moist season, leaving their seeds and/or a viable root system to lie dormant until the next moist period.
Animal life in the Arid Desert would tend to be either the small burrowing variety or larger, but thin. Due 