studying environmental science is great because sometimes you get to sit in a lecture hall for an hour and listen to a man rant passionately about soil and how no one cares enough about soil and how important soil is to literally everything we rely on to survive and you start to feel guilty about not appreciating soil enough
anyways guys did you know that we lose 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil every year to erosion, runoff, pollution, rising sea levels, and degradation? and that it takes 200 years to form one centimeter of topsoil? soil is essentially a nonrenewable resource that we are losing faster than trees and we literally need it to grow all of the food we eat. without soil society would collapse and we would all die.
take some time today to appreciate soil. do it for my sustainable agro-ecosystems professor.
I have some new hard enamel pins available in my Etsy shop! A soils color chart and the soils pyramid! There is also a combo pack where you can pick which color triangle and soils chart you want together.
Essay on: Soul Sand Composition, Nether Energy Cycles, and Dimensional Space-Time Warping in Minecraft.
hey guys. I'm being an autistic biologist about minecraft again....
Texture and structure
The three principle minecraft lore assumptions are as follows: First, the Nether was blatantly oceanic and/or cooler in the deep deep past, as evidenced by the prevalence of basalt which can only form when lava cools, enormous sand banks, and hydratable jellyfish-like ghasts. Second, that Minecraft souls are analogous to heat and will constantly be compared to energy cycling (consumption, magic, heat loss). Finally, I consider the Nether a closed-loop system with minimal energy inputs/outputs, and the perpetual heat output of lava is due to drawing from soul energy sequestered in soul sand banks.
Soul sand. SAND. It’s about percolation baby! Due to grain size and porosity, the souls can quickly percolate into the soul sand and become sequestered. I assume souls take a very long time to percolate if soils of different textures such as clay or silt have minimal sequestration. (This will be returned to). Furthermore, soul sand banks are where all that juicy organic matter from the oceans accumulated in massive banks of necro-mass/souls. Side note the giant skeletons were nether equivalent whale falls.
Now, the very evident high organic matter in soul sand would drastically affect the structure of the soil. But would you look at that. In sandy soils, organic matter aggregates increase water and nutrient retention. Only further increasing their soul/Organic matter sequestration!
Anyway at this point I started considering soul sand similar to histosols. Similar color, pluuuuuuuus:
Hmm. That is shareing quite a lot of the characteristics we theoriezed about, doesn't it?
Anyway, I'm putting a read more line here. Click if you want to read the following sections: Vegetation ||| Nether Decomposition ||| Nom Proceeds to Lose Their Mind About Coal Formation ||| The Dimensional Warp of Space, and thus Time, in Minecraft Dimensions (which explains the coal problem, and invents several new ones) ||| The Apocalypse
Vegetation
All that organic matter should be making this soil very fecund! Netherack has no topsoil, so no vegetation, it tracks. But why does the soul soil have so much abundant soil and no growth compared to like the crimsons, warped biomes that only have a thin layer of topsoil?
We see that experience (soul energy) from killed mobs attracts to players. I propose that higher concentrations of soul energy attract more energy. And soul sand banks, which have ungodly concentrations of sequestered soul energy, may be enough to attract still living souls. Such as, slowing down animals walking across it. Permanent organisms like plants and fungi can't effectively grow there. They need to absorb soul energy, nutrients, etc from the soil to survive, but the soil has higher priority soul attraction. But all this does mean that no new organic matter (or souls!) are being added to the soul sand banks, and so they have a net loss due to burning using up souls and organic matter.
Nether Decomposition
The fuel source line....beautiful beautiful. So histosols would be suited for an oceanic/potentially arctic (basalts) due to the anaerobic decomposition of waterlogged soils, allowing such high organic matter accumulation.
My first thought in the comparison was that histosols decay rapidly once in aerobic conditions. If the Nether was previously oceanic, most of the bacteria would've been adapted to anaerobic conditions. And now the current high temperatures obliterate aerobic decomposer microbes hitching a dimensional ride on people. Perhaps the Nether has a dearth of decomposers in this unique modern slice of evolutionary history; Hence immense accumulation of souls and organic matter. Hence all of the bones remaining for an incredibly long time.
But! A lot of bacteria types can go dormant for very long periods of time and reactivate when exposed to water once again. Hence, when you put soul sand underwater, it creates the bubbling jet streams upward because of all of the explosion of anaerobic bacteria activity (and therefore bubbling methane (or other gaseous waste products I cannot be bothered to get into alt electron acceptors rn)) in a very rich and organic matter dense soul sand.
Nom Proceeds to Lose Their Mind About Coal Formation
I had a minor break down when I remembered coal. Histosols create lots of nice rich coal and peat due to the high organic contents, low decomposition, and lots of heat and pressure. The Nether certainly fits the bill for heat and a dearth of aerobic decay! BUT THERES NO COAL. NONE. NOT IN THE GROUND THERES A LITTLE IN WITHER SKELETONS IGNORE THAT. NO COAL. NONE.
So my first theory was thus: What if some property of netherack limits the amount of pressure that organic matter can experience? Netherack could be forming a bone-like matrix that minimizes compression that, on a geologic scale, limits pressure enough that coal cannot form. My only real evidence is that Netherack breaks startlingly easy, as if it's full of air pockets.
Stone, meanwhile, holds real world properties of compression, leading to the formation of coal in the over world. Overworld has far more rebust soul cycling due to 1. lots of plants 2. soil texture less suited to soul percolation 3. Open energy system that allows souls to escape as heat waste at a faster rate than they can percolate 4. coal compression removing any soul sand-esque formations from consideration, limiting the positive feedback loop of soul attraction. Ergo over world has coal, Nether does not.
And then I developed a secondary theory for why there is no coal. Cause hey, what if coal hasn't had time to form in the Nether? But has in the Overworld?
The Dimensional Warp of Space, and thus Time, in Minecraft Dimensions
In my meager defense, I am not a physicist. So do not understand space-time, particularly not in Minecraft. However what I do suggest is thus:
Space and Time are related.
The Nether is a condensation of space compared to the overworld, along the 8 blocks we see
Therefore time in the Nether is also condensed relative to the overworld.
The End is an expansion of space compared to the overworld, in the same vein that outer space is expanding. The correlating chunks in the overworld are separated from one another when translated to the End, but due to gravity and time have condensed into sparse End islands.
Therefore time in the End is also expanded relative to the overworld.
Fig. 1 displays the proportion of three chunks between the three dimensions.
Fig. 2 displays the duration (shaded) of x length of time proportional between the dimensions. An afternoon in the over world is a faction of that duration in the Nether, as time moves slower. This aligns with how blackholes have high condensation of matter and have time crawling slow at the even horizon. An afternoon in the overworld is months or years in the End, as time moves far faster.
My proposed duration that (the space traveled to in) each dimension has relatively existed. The Nether: A few million years, thus coal has not formed, the Nether has not adapted aerobic decomposition.
The Overworld: A few billion years. Has coal. Perhaps hasn't existed as long as the Earth because their day-night cycle is approximately 20 minutes.
The End: A trillion, maybe. Something crazy. I suggest that the time warping affect is far more pronounced in the End than the Nether, due to the far greater scattering of matter in the End such that there isn't the clear 1-8 conversion thats seen between nether and overworld. The Nether potentially could only get so condensed. The End can expand infinitely, and has had more time to do so. The increased spatial discconection corresponds with decreased temporal connections.
The Apocalypse
In the fic I'm doing all this world building for, researcher Wickburn says:
Tracking the severe rift in thermal signatures between the Nether and Overworld dimensions is the primary method for determining where the overlap between is thick enough for a portal. Of course, most places are suitable for Nether portals, with minimal risk of destabilizing dimensional rifts if they’re clustered at no greater a density than 2 per chunk (Rei and Orzain 8 L. R. I). Comparatively, the End and Overworld have far less overlap, and even fewer that avoid the disastrous 120 chunk radius minimum (Rei et al. 43 L. R. I).
Not all of this is relavent, but it points to core evidence.
1.For people to discover that other dimensions existed, there needed to be some natural phenomena where the dimensions were already connected.
2. some dimensions connect more easily than others. Hence you cannot make Nether portals in the End.
3.That level of connection changes over time. Thus, ancient minecrafters could make end portals, but you can't now.
4.When it was a cooler dimension, The Nether previously had more connection to the End, making it a more open loop system. IMO this is the biggest leap in logic of this whole piece, in part because its major supporting evidence is related specifically to the Ame smp. But do bear with me. The Nether has a very direct 1-8 block conversion of space with the overworld. Therefore, the two dimensions are more closely related. During the time when the End was still 'close' enough for overworld portals to be built, it would've also been 'closer' to the nether. Now it isn't 'close' enough for new overworld portals to be built, and no nether portals to even work.
5. Previously the Nether's soul and heat loss escaped to the End, where in the void of space the heat input made very little difference, and also was in the far, far more distant past for End evolutionary history compared to the Nether. Heat could've also escaped to the Overworld, I do think it would've had far more impact there. Potentially the disconnect between End and Nether was the natural result of the End's constant expansion, perhaps there's some other cause. Really weird line in the sand to say at this point it's too purely speculation for me to theorize how that shook out, but that's where it is for me.
6. Without the connection to the End, the Nether became a nearly closed loop system. With greater difficulty escaping the Nether, souls/energy had more time to percolate into soul sand valleys, further sequestering it. This positive feedback loop caused catastrophic heating, boiling the oceans and turning the Nether hellish. And the overworld being an open loop system where waste heat can escape into sky/space/End didn't experience this heating apocalypse. The current Nether has extremely minimal heat export, and grows increasingly hot from the current soul/energy input due to the vast amount of soul sand sequestering energy.
Therefore: this entire essay WAS about soul sand the whole time SCREW YOU.
Finally, closing questions: WHAT THE HELL IS THE SOURCE OF ENERGY IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHERE DO SOULS COME FROM? SHAKING MOJANG AND DEMANDING ANSWERS
Adendum: I have found an alternative coal theory but it involves Ame smp specific lore. Which could mean ignoring the entire time-space warping but I really like the implications of origin lifespans so it stays. Unless anyone objects to my bio physics dimension lore in which case ignore this entire essay
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
A new study demonstrates that invasive plants don't just directly compete with native species at a direct, macro level, but the ability they have to connect with mycorrhizal partners have a negative impact on the soil microbiome into which they are introduced. It also makes the point that the relationship between a plant and its mycorrhizal partners does not occur in a vacuum, but within the wider community of plants and the various beings in the soil microbiome.
All of this may seem common sense; after all, all of nature is interconnected in some way or another. However, mycorrhizal relationships are often presented in a 1:1 ratio, with a plant and its fungal partner working together in spite of whatever else is going on around them. It should come as no surprise that environmental factors can alter that relationship, and how effectively the partners exchange nutrients. In this case in particular, the invasive plant was able to tap into the mycorrhizal network, but less efficiently than its native neighbors.
Whether it can evolve more effective connections with soil fungi in the future remains to be seen. Moreover, this was a study done in a laboratory setting with two native plants and one invasive, and may not necessarily reflect the complexity of mycorrhizal networks in nature. Still, the fact that the introduction of a non-native plant species can affect how native plants and fungi interact is one more reason to remove invasive species whenever possible.
*"Myco" means fungus and "rhizo" means root. Some soil fungi wrap their mycelium around the roots of plants, or even grow into those roots. the plants then send carbon made from sunlight through photosynthesis down to the fungi, and the fungi give the plants phosphorus and other nutrients from the soil in a mutually beneficial relationship.
