al picture of that environment.
When we are creating planetary models, we need to associate environments with wholistic patterns, combining average planetary surface temperature, atmospheric circulation, illumination levels across the latitudes and biological adaptation. We need to think of an environment as a process and biological adaptions as shifts with in the matrix of interplay between the given planetary and solar parameters.
By definition, a desert is a region left unoccupied; waste, barren; it is also an arid region lacking the moisture to support much vegetation. Our perceptions of a ‘desert’ relate to the later narrow description, yet in a broader context we can define other deserts, as;
• Aquatic Nutrient Desert: Where there is a lack of available nutrients; such conditions exist on Earth’s ocean surface, beyond the continental shelf.
• Cold Desert: The continent of Antarctica.
• Arid Desert: The arid Gobi, Sahara, Kalahari, Rub Al Kahali, Mohave deserts, etc.
• Heat Desert: As located on some of our warmer planetary models; heat is the biologically limiting factor.
• Illumination Desert: Located near 90º latitude on very warm, low axial inclination planets. Perpetual, extremely low levels of illumination are biologically limiting factors, unless nutriens feed into the illumination desert from biologically active areas.
The pattern in which each of Earth’s biological communities have developed was influenced by temperature, precipitation, atmospheric composition and circulation, axial inclination, planetary mass, stellar spectral class, the existence of other orbiting bodies (‘moon’, binary star system), etc. If we shift the values of any of these variables on Earth, there would be a direct impact on the morphology, size and distribution of our biological community, changing them away from what we hyave considered the norm. The norm that we find on extraterrestrial worlds will have developed under their own interplay of planet-star conditions. Intelligent, tool using creatures may seem quite different 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 tempera