Re: [MUD-Dev] Java, applets, forests and ecologies.

[Michael Hohensee <michael#sparta,mainstream.net>]

Derrick Jones wrote:

> I also meantioned disasters.  Frequent tornadoes and lightning strikes
> (starting forest fires) pretty much wiped out the forests which once
> covered the Great Plains in the US.  Forests that are devistated as such
> begin their growth from start if enough area is destroyed to prevent
> re-seeding.  The Plains were in the tall grasses phase when 'discovered',
> and mans (as well as nature's) constant intervention kept them from ever
> growing back.  Forests bordering on destroyed areas have a gradual edge
> after a while, as the shrubs and smaller trees re-seed more quickly, and
> they will slowly spread out over the area.
> 

Actually, plains arise because of periodic droughts.  In the Plains,
great big droughts occur every X number of years, and trees cannot
tolerate this.  Grasses, on the other hand, do quite nicely, hence the
Plains are covered in grass. :)


-- 
Michael Hohensee       michael#sparta,mainstream.net
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/9025/
      Finger me for my PGP Public Key, or use: 
http://sparta.mainstream.net/michael/pgpkey.txt