#ecotone

[treehouseandmushrooms]

i’ve learned how to draw cats now i’m unstoppable the power of the world is in my hands

[noosphe-re]

Ecotones refer to transition areas where ecological communities, ecosystems and biotic regions coincide. These zones are rich in biodiversity, acting as vibrant meeting grounds between distinct ecosystems. The intertwining of habitats provides critical space for activities like courtship, nesting, and foraging. Thus, ecotones are not merely boundaries or edges; rather, they embody zones of active interaction between two or more ecosystems, exhibiting unique characteristics that are absent in the adjacent ecosystems. Ecotones can be loosely categorized into four categories: terrestrial ecotones (boundaries between different land ecosystems, such as forests and grasslands); aquatic ecotones (transitional areas between freshwater and marine environments, like estuaries and wetlands); riparian ecotones (areas along rivers and streams where aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems meet); urban ecotones (also called anthropogenic ecotones, they are interfaces between urban areas and natural landscapes); and vertical ecotones (gradients created by changes in elevation, such as mountain ecosystems transitioning from forest to alpine tundra).

Anjanalakshmi G, Borderlands of Wonder: How Ecotones Support Biodiversity and Resilience (Earth.Org)

[odettecarotte]

Bandelier National Park

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Ecotones

No, not the name of a conservation music style. An ecotone is an area where two distinct ecosystems - for example, pine flatwoods and vernal ponds - grade into each other. The area isn’t ecologically one or the other, but it’s connected to the patterns of both.

The endangered pine flatwoods salamander is dependent on not just longleaf pine flatwoods for adult living space, and vernal pools to breed in, but on there being a grassy ecotone between the two places that the salamanders can easily cross. If fires are suppressed, and brambles and oaks start growing up where the grass was, the salamanders have a hard time migrating to breed. And given there aren’t that many good breeding years in the first place... you get the idea. So how does this relate to worldbuilding?

On a pure physical world level, ecotones are like any other border feature; they can become a point of contention from both sides. An area that’s neither more water nor more trees can seem useless to a property owner who owns one of those, and they’re likely to try expanding their half into the muddled area.

(Here I’m going to note that this is a Bad Idea if you want long-term stable returns from what you’ve got. But there’s an amazing number of people for whom “long-term” means next week, not ten years from now.)

As we know from the internet, anything that can be argued over will be argued over. An ecotone makes a handy conflict source in your plot, whether large or small. In the right story, two neighbors duking it out over a grassy meadow and dragging in all their neighbors, allies, enemies, and innocent bystanders, can be just as dramatic as two nations going to war.

Though if you want that last, ecotones can be your thing, too. Different habitats mean different ways people make a living - and that means, people being people, conflicts over the One True Way to Live.

A classic ecotone in history for this conflict is the ever-shifting boundary between dry steppes and land watered enough to farm in Asia. People living in that ecotone were often merchants, traders, outcasts or oddballs from both sides. It didn’t take much to set off a brawl. And sometimes it didn’t take many brawls to set off Nomads Looting Everything or the Latest Chinese Empire Smiting Nomads.

(I really liked The Legend of Hua Mulan (2013); it got into a fair amount of this!)

One way to give stories life and breath is to wedge them into the cracks of history and what-if. Ecotones are one more place to start looking.

...And the salamanders are neat, too.

[cedar-glade]

Transient skunk cabbage patch, now bog goldenrod and Virgin’s bower, midsummer it’s jewel weeds galore, vignettes to a unique ecotone.

Fen ecotone to mesic woodland in back ground.

The word ecotone is a word I want to use more in my writing but I feel like it’s not super accessible as jargin.

Liminal bridge or a transitional space inbetween different habitats thats noticable but not abrupt and can be catagorized by mixing of vegitation and habitat where core species aren’t necessarily found that would be found in the core of both adjacent habitats to the ecotone. This is not considered true edge habitat as edges feel abrupt with less of a flowing transition.

[flowers-of-io]

for the year-in-review— 1 / 19 / 24!

Year in review asks

1. favorite fic you wrote this year

I'm still not 100% with how it turned out, but nothing's fair in love and war is definitely my favourite, even if don't consider it the best.

19. any new fics to start next year

Oh, I have an enormous pile of wips to dig myself out of first, so I'm probably gonna be working on that. The next chapter of Book is missing like one connecting bit between scenes, the next two chaps of Come in Time are almost ready, I've got over 8k words of Nox Luminata first draft to edit and probably 4k more to write, both Plunder and Seraph seasonal fics in progress, and I really want to post Sav's court AU at some point as well... And that's only counting the multi-chaptered fics. I'm NOT even looking at the Immaru one I've had in my wips since early summer, or the two Arrivals years old wips. Help me.

(I would, however, love to write something short about Fynch bringing Ken cookies...)

24. favorite fic you read this year

Oh no, just one? D; I have a list with handy notes!

• Midnight Son by NomadBlue - #2 best Hive love story after Hiraks and In Anânh

• Diplomatic Ties by @intrepiddreamx - yes, I only started reading it this January, don't @ me

• The Heart of a Dead Thing by ewelinakl - the best Dishonored fic I've read, + a rarepair!

• la petite mort by @howlingmoonrise - just read it

[tetrachrome]

two funny little gifs for a silly spreadsheet thing for a ttrpg :]

[terranlifeform]

Forest-fen ecotone in the Biebrzański National Park of Poland

Mila Łozowska