Narrow Areas for Living Things on Cubic Earth
On the cubic Earth, the area at 0.5--1 atmosphere on land is assumed as the habitable zone where people of the Earth can survive. There are 4 habitable zones on 4 equatorial planes on the cubic Earth, but there is only 1 plane having sea where there is water essential for the life. The habitable zone is a belt having a width of 18 km and 59 km away from the coastal line, and about 0.2 million km2 in the total area, about a half areal size of Japan. Temperature of the habitable zone is about 20℃.
Biological richness of a given ecosystem entirely depends on the size of primary productivity (production of plants), which is controlled mainly by temperature and precipitation on the Earth. Both relationships are shown in Figure 11. In the area of hot temperature, forest, sparse wood, grass land or desert can develop depending upon precipitation. For example, in the area of average temperature of 25--30℃, tropical rain forest develops over 250 cm of yearly precipitation, seasonal forest falling leaves in dry season occurs with 150--250 cm, sparse wood appears with 50--150 cm, and desert develops below 50 cm. On the cubic Earth, there is no rain on land but fog which dew condensate near the land surface and creates ground water. Ground water increases towards the sea.
Strange Shaped Vegetables
Tropical rain and seasonal forests are expected to be developed along the seaside of habitable zone and there occurs grass land of Lomas flower and tumble-weed away from the forest. The Lomas flower collects water from air by the leaf, absorbs nutrients by roots and grows using solar radiation. Tumble-weed collects water from air and soil surface during rolling, obtains nutrients from sea water splash near the coast, grows using solar radiation, and disperses the nutrients around the habitable zone when they are decomposed.
Terrestrial ecosystem is assumed to be composed by only 2 groups of organisms such as plants and decomposers, and be no animal as consumer. Namely the matter cycle on the terrestrial ecosystem on the cubic Earth is expected to be carried out solely by plants as the producer of organic matter and microorganisms as the decomposer. This is similar as the forest on the Earth where the effects of animals are extremely limited.
