Building Biomes - Deserts | Worldbuilding

Episode 12: Ecology Part 3 - Deserts
In this video we discuss how to worldbuild desert climates, where desert climates can be found across an earth-like planet, as well as looking at some iconic desert flora and fauna on earth, and how to create some of your own.
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WORLDBUILDING CORNER: www.worldbuildingcorner.com
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All music, images, and other media used in this video are available for commercial use with Creative Commons licensing, found on www.pixabay.com and www.pexels.com, or are individually credited below under the following license: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Saltwort image credit: Zeynel Cebeci
Sand Cat image credit: Ranjith-chemmad
Black-Footed Cat image credit: Jonathan Kriz

[@michaljanovsky8966]

interesting vid but people often forget the distribution of deserts is more affected by the planet´s rotational speed, axial tilt etc.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Absolutely! Based on my research, deserts on earth in the past were in locations they wouldn't be now because of the difference in axial tilt. There are often many more hidden variables for most climate zones, especially for planets that aren't similar to earth. However, that can be a bit of a rabbit hole of climatological science, and a little beyond the scope of this series. Great point though!

[@scottpankonin1068]

Also tend to originate on the west coast of continents bending poleward. They are not found on east coasts of continents. Africa may seem like an exception, but Africa ia actually a segment of a larger continent that includes all of eurasia, and the desert that begins with the sahara, extends through the middle east and into central asia.

[@scottpankonin1068]

You end up with the desert and mediteranean climates on the west coast of a continent, with the desart trending to the interior and pole-ward. And the Cfa (Humid subtropical climate is situated on the east coast of the continent. There are maps of hypothetical koppen maps that take a regularly shaped oblong continent and distrbute climates ccross it that illustrate this really well.

[@Gregatron13]

​@@scottpankonin1068 That bit about Africa explains a lot! Thanks!

[@bumbread5989]

I really like the fact that in the process of building a fictional world there are many things that can be learned about our own world. It was a nice surprise learning why cacti have spikes

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

So many times I find out things about our real-life world that are just as cool as fantasy, if not more so. We truly have a wonderful world, rich with inspiration for worldbuilding.

[@soujanyachatterjee09]

It is also a modification of leaves. They are reduced to spine, causing almost nil transpiration . Transpiration causes loss of water..and Root pull. Root Pull is a very important feature in tropical plants to get minerals frok soil.

[@powerofanime1]

One detail: the camel's hump actually stores fat for energy. The water is stored in its abdomen. That's just one small thing in a phenomenal series though!

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

During the last glacial maximum, there were polar deserts, which were essentially barren, cold land with some very rare organism being able to survive these conditions (by that, I mean polar climates free of ice sheets due to dryness). Some cold deserts are so hostile that bodies there don't decompose. Which is perfect for a fantasy setting...Like a liche lord with a permanent undead army.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Definitely! The old warcraft player in me is nostalgic for arctic liches haha.

[@brokensocrates827]

Yo man I've been world building for years, and now am working on redesigning the way flora works from scratch on this ancient ass video game called SS13 for a medieval server. As I was thinking of ideas I came across your resources... Awesome script and editing, seriously fantastic. Keep up the good work and don't be discouraged by the view count. You got a gift, I'll be checking out all your videos in preparation!

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Thanks for the positive feedback! Glad you enjoyed the content and found it helpful :) good luck with your flora redesign, I find that some of the greatest fantasy inspirations are right here on earth, we have such diverse and unique organisms across the planet! Change one tiny aspect and lots of follow-on differences occur. Always fascinating!

[@brianroberts783]

Aside from the awesome alchemy that Ultimus can do to produce water, there is another substance that can be produced using nitrogen, oxygen, and electricity in our real world. This is nitrate, which can be produced from the gases in Earth's atmosphere by lighting strikes. Incidentally, nitrate is the number one most important nutrient for plants, providing nitrogen for the creation of amino acids and nucleic acids. In other words, Ultimus can use its electro synthesis to generate water and nitrate together, helping to explain how it is able to function in low nutrient environments.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

That's a really cool point! I hadn't even considered that! Thank you for pointing it out, it's always so cool when things like that work out for a fantasy creation :)

[@Phantom11718]

Washington State is an example of the rain shadow effect, on the ocean side of the Pacific Crest mountain range it's lush and green, on the inland side it's basically Idaho, very dry and very little plant life

[@MGDrzyzga]

Foggy deserts, foggy steppes - so intrigued here. It's led me to tweaking my setting so the capital of the major empire is now coastal and with foggy desert and foggy steppe quite nearby.

[@RisingRose]

Great video! Been binging your Building Biomes videos and they're really helpful! My Worldbuilding process is much less scientific than the one in these videos, but I still love watching them for inspiration, and to know what the more realistic ways to do things are before I go off the rails in how I create my own world. Plus, I'm not too well-versed on what exactly classifies the different biomes myself, so learning about that is also something these videos are of use to me for! Keep up the great work :] (Oh, and also, thank you VERY much for the trigger warning on spiders!!! I have a severe phobia of spiders and insects. Not everyone puts in warnings for them, but on this video i was able to scroll down from the video in time to avoid seeing it, thanks to the warning you put in :])

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad you are enjoying the videos and able to get inspiration from them! If nothing else, I hope people can be inspired for their own creations, the creative process is so enjoyable, it's lovely to hear that my content is inspiring that creativity :) I try to put trigger warnings for some of the more common issues like spiders and flashing lights, glad they have been useful! And thank you for the positive feedback! I am enjoying creating the building biomes mini-series but also looking forward to some more involved worldbuilding for intelligent species and cultures. Stay tuned :)

[@nekokoishi]

Interesting, I supposed I could use the rain shadow thing for one area in my world which is basically a mountain range that blocks the other side of the world.

[@timothytumusiime2903]

Ultimus is on another level of world building I love that plant

[@andresmarrero8666]

With the ultimus plant one could grow their own battery and there is now a salty cactus that acts as a natural refrigerator. Clever civilizations would probably be utilizing these magical plants in place of certain structures and foundations, building around them and with the plants in mind in order to take full advantage of the severance and synthesis capabilities for a variety of tasks. Also I am most curious about the foggy deserts. How come people don't often use them?

[@nathanhaywood273]

Man, this video series is densely packed with very helpful information

[@adenashiscave]

I've been loving this series (and all of your videos so far), but I just wanted to say thank you for the warning about the spider. Thank you!

[@MerkhVision]

Thank you for the spider trigger warning and including how much time to skip! That was much appreciated lol

[@TemplarWarden]

The ultimate power of a star... in a bush.

[@kentario1610]

The lists of adaptations gave me ideas for multiple strains of the same creature I could have! Thank you for that!! Also, it occurred to me that it's smart for rollis to roll down, because that brings you closer to the water table and oases! Though that made me wonder how they gain altitude again - when they're dry they walk up to try a different path to find more water maybe? - or if they even do, leading to the entire species never exceeding a certain altitude, but then there's a stopping point...

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad to have been of help! I imagine the Rolli having 'ascension' points, possibly cliffs they must climb whilst dehydrated to bring them back to elevation, which is exceptionally dangerous, and leaves them very exposed to the elements and to predators, but there's definitely real-life precedent for this in many species, especially birds, even flightless ones. I very much have been inspired by penguins specifically for the Rolli.

[@Ninjaananas]

Desert animals also tend to have less massive bodies to avoid heat and longer, thinner legs to increase distance to the hot ground and to make make it easier to give off heat.

[@Rei_geDo]

Insightful and fascinating video as always! Do you make all of the art for these videos?

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

For the plants and creatures? I wish I was so artistically skilled! I often edit stock images to suit what I have in mind. Specifically for this series, I am using sketches from the 18th/19th century that are now public domain, because they have a 'vintage' style feel to them. I like to imagine sketches like these being in the journals of people like Charles Darwin. Unfortunately I don't have the expertise with art to make the quality I want from scratch myself. And as always, thanks for the positive support :)

[@RowenaReddragon]

Love your channel! Thank you. May i know which font you used for the titles of flora & fauna like optimus?

[@fatherillogical627]

What program do you use for your map making? Love your videos and has inspired the start of the best world I’ve ever created

[@littlerave86]

I wonder, as you marked cold and hot steppe on your map but didn't mention them, is it feasible to just throw in a narrow band around deserts and call it a day? Looking at the Eurasian steppe or the American midwest, which are both massive areas of steppe grasslands, I feel they should cover a lot more area on a map. In the specific case of Locus, the cold deserts closer to the polar front on the southern hemisphere aren't in the middle of large continents and mostly shaped by mountain ranges. There is the large desert in the north though, of which I feel, especially considering the westward winds, the western part, at least up until or close to the mountain ranges should all be a steppe environment, rather than a full-blown desert. Also, considering my German sources, here in Germany we seem to differentiate between three different deserts, hot deserts, cold deserts, and cool temperate deserts. Cold deserts are actually polar deserts, which are basically in the polar area but receive so little precipitation, there may not be even any ice coverage at all. They are cold year round however, whereas cool temperate deserts would be warm in the summer. The cold deserts marked on the Locus map would then actually be cool temperate deserts, whereas cold deserts aren't marked at all. The area in between the mountain ranges just above the northern desert would make a reasonable candidate though.

[@zakosist]

The rolli looks like a chinchilla to me. Interesting concept, but I think they would pretty much always end up at the bottom of a hill rather soon.

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

5:57 ah yes, the great northern Pingas desert

[@waspsandwich6548]

Your production quality is surprisingly high for such a small channel

[@kentario1610]

I've been rewatching these to try to figure out general food sources for biomes and therefore what adaptations winged people would have to live there successfully, and i accidentally noticed the Rollis were classified as Frigidi... oops! These videos are very useful for brainstorming!

[@RoryRose_]

i've decided rolli are the best fantasy animal every convenience

[@devionjalderson]

Hi Matthew! I absolutely love these videos, I also had a question, im developing a desert for my world and I wanted to have a certain patch (or multiple patches) of the desert be a Fluidize bed (a physical phenomenon that occurs when a solid is under the right conditions so that it behaves like a fluid). Do you have and suggestions or tips for this to naturally occur in a world????

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Really cool question! I will be honest, fluidized beds are a little outside of my expertise, but my understanding is that pressure causes the element to liquidise even under circumstances and temperatures that it would usually be solid. The main natural cause for this would be gravity, just as we see in planetary interiors and stars. However, under usual circumstances gravity doesn't 'pocket' in areas. If you could artificially or magically increase gravity in those areas, I imagine you could achieve the desired effect. Alternatively, if there were naturally occurring structures where pressure could build up, kind of like a gas trap, that may have a similar effect? You could justify creatures like insects building one if it had a purpose to their colony perhaps. Not 'natural' per se but I imagine it still achieves what you're thinking of? Ants on earth are truly spectacular in their engineering, I don't think it's out of the question. Also worth noting that in these circumstances, the pressure wouldn't just apply to the elements in question, but to anything else that entered the area. Insects withstand high pressure really well, but a human would be crushed upon entering. Unless of course, magic was involved. Good luck, that sounds really interesting!

[@devionjalderson]

For Starters…. Thank so much for replying!!! And wow those are some great ideas using insects to create gas traps under that sand, I guess coming up for a reason why they would do that would be fun! The first idea I had was that the pressurized gas came from underground volcanic activity like how it is underwater but I wasn’t sure of the physics of that lol Btw can wait for the next video, big fan

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

@@devionjalderson You are very welcome, glad you are enjoying! There are definitely pressurised gas deposits that form due to volcanic activity, however they require a 'trap' which (to my knowledge) always occurs underground, so the liquid you are wanting wouldn't be present on the surface, but would have to be tapped and mined, like we do IRL for oil and gas. Also, the pressure required to liquify an element would be immense. You could probably google the pressure required for each element, but I'd wager you'd be looking at volcanic levels of pressurisation, and even in an artificial trap, they would be exceptionally dangerous and prone to explosion.

[@devionjalderson]

Only thing is, I wonder how this is gonna affect the tectonic plates, like I wonder if the desert patches where this happens have to be on a convergent or divergent plate to form this volcanic activity

[@devionjalderson]

Btw thank you all the extra insight, this is gonna be a tough project

[@illuminati1866]

Thx Помогло

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

In a colder climate, cold deserts might even drop lower than -38. Like, I am Canadian, and in some parts of Canada, temperatures like -40 aren't that rare in certain parts of the country.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

I'm not very familiar with Canada's geography, I didn't know there were deserts there! I assumed Canada was mostly continental and subarctic. I had heard things get truly frigid in some areas though. Fascinating!

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

@@WorldbuildingCorner ​ The Prairies can get extremely hot in summer, extremely cold in Winter from what I heard. However, we still have huge temperature drops. Since most of Canada has a dry climate, most Canadians who don't live near the cost cannot tolerate wet climates at all. There is a special quality to oceanic climates that someone who grew up in a continental climate find near unbearable. Mist is okay, and most tolerate humid weather no issue, but for some reason, +5 degrees Celsius in a humid climate is bitterly cold. Also, a more humid climate has quite a drastic effect on slowing age. I grew up in a very continental climate, and pre-mature wrinkles were the norm, resulting in me asking IDs of middle aged adults, since my first job was in a different city than the one I grew up in.

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

@@WorldbuildingCorner There is, but it's super tiny and in Saskatchewan. However, our Prairies can get super frigid in the winter from what I heard.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

@@Lilas.Duveteux Very interesting! I always see parts of Canada online and it looks very beautiful. I would love to visit one day :)

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

@@WorldbuildingCorner Thanks.

[@thaprofessa2296]

Realize you have your own editing formula and videos may be recorded already but when you state species that fill the ecosystems niches like salrubus if you could state or picture what they evolved from would be nice

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

The organisms in this series are usually an order or genus, rather than individual species. Their taxonomic details are in the bottom left of each organism's details screen, and I discuss their origins and the tree of life in the video Origins of Life. Hope this helps!

[@nekokoishi]

hhmm kinda imagining a plant that just only needs to consume sand for its nutrients. Although, the more I think about it, such an idea could probably work in my world. Consuming both sand and a made up element to convert the sand into soil which will make the harsher desert areas more habitable.

[@cerberaodollam]

Thermoseverance sounds like breaking thermodynamics though...? Like, usable energy form heat how?

[@malakine6306]

Magic. He's creating a fantasy world where energy can get in and out of the universe. Some lifeforms are evolving with these capacity.

[@1Maklak]

Two of those deserts are over large river basins, though.

[@DaDunge]

16:00 Something that suprises no cat owner.

[@ATOM-vv3xu]

18:20 they being black isn't beneficial since it's probably night so there is no light to be absorbed but the higher black-body radiation cools them down to much

[@gyrrakavian]

I just made my blood cactus' roots latch onto anything with humidity coming of of it.

[@Rexotec]

not to be dramatic but i would die for a rolli

[@markchristiansen5683]

Damn, that Rolli thicc.