Otters aren’t merely nature’s adorable sea puppies; they also might be helping to fight climate change, according to an article from the BBC. “Sea otters help ecosystems capture carbon from the atmosphere and store it as biomass and deep-sea detritus, preventing it from being converted back to carbon dioxide and contributing to climate change,” the article says. Otters eat sea urchins, which eat kelp, which in great quantities is capable of storing multiple tons of carbon. Without otters, we have more sea urchins, less kelp, and vital green ecosystems turn into undersea deserts and more carbon is released into the atmosphere.
In 2018, Teen Vogue (of all places) ran an article on how climate change is causing arctic spiders to grow in both size and number, which seems to be good news for the planet. In short, the planet’s increasing temperatures are causing arctic permafrost to melt faster. When permafrost melts, it releases more greenhouse gases, which accelerate climate change. However, earlier springs and longer summers are helping spiders grow larger and produce more spiderbabies. Where there are more spiders, there are more fungus-eating anthropods (I don’t know why), and those critters are eating the fungus that causes permafrost to decompose. So the very climate situation that is causing accelerated spider growth and reproduction is also creating a side effect that is slowing the destruction of the ecosystem.
If you’re writing science fiction or fantasy, how are your world’s ecosystems dependent on small connections between animals and their environments? How do the living creatures – including the two-legged – interact with their environment? Whether you use this prompt as a key plot point or a small worldbuilding detail, the relationship between your characters and their world could be brighter and made more real for your readers.
Thinking beyond SF&F, consider how small connections might make or break your characters’ lives in any type of story. Sometimes, even a small or seemingly insignificant relationship can make all the difference to your world.
