Even though it's morning off, I wake up at the same time as usual, and the repair of my brain cells and sorting of my memories are delayed. I'm the broken radio, Cavity Angel!
On the surface of the water in the one-ton mini-earth "Biocube," small duckweed and azolla are once again exposed to the merciless direct sunlight, overlapping like a carpet and engaged in a fierce battle for survival. This battle is, for example, a fight for sunlight, and losing the top position means death for duckweeds. If they are mounted, they die. They can solve the problem of water supply by growing roots like little whiskers, but if the light is blocked, they have no choice but to wither. Looking at the large Anacharis growing under the carpet of duckweed, I think that even if there is a light blockage, it is a very small area. It may still be fatal for small duckweeds. Also, some duckweeds may be pinched from above and below, cutting off their water supply. Another hypothesis is that the duckweeds below may die not because of a lack of light or water, but because the weight of other duckweeds on top of them completely submerges them. In any case, for duckweeds, it's safe to say that being dominated means direct death. In fact, on the carpet woven by these duckweeds, a miracle occurred that I hadn't anticipated when I conceived the "Biocube." A large number of mites and small winged insects appeared there. Inadvertently, the duckweeds played the role of the "above ground."
Since most of the surroundings are floating plants, I think they can basically use the floating plants that serve as their footholds as food.
Some also try to cross from the hydrosphere into the atmosphere.
Elodea canadensis and Hydrocotyle protrude above the water surface when they grow.
However, it seems that the mites are multiplying so much that they are eating the buds that emerge.
Since the mites are multiplying so much, I think they are eating the duckweed itself, but I have observed that the mites gather around any aquatic plants that protrude slightly.
It seems that Elodea canadensis and Hydrocotyle are more delicious than duckweed.
When I looked closely, I saw that spiders had spun their webs using the walls and corners of the tank.
Looking closely, I found several spider webs between the lid of the atmospheric section and the wall!
There are several spiders!
What's more, there are winged insects and mites caught in the spider webs!
This shows that the food chain can also operate in the aquatic world.
This is an exciting development.
As expected, there are many things you can't know until you actually try it!
I had no knowledge at all about these two types of insects, so I relied on Wikipedia again.
For those who are knowledgeable, this may seem like a very superficial introduction, but I'll summarize what I found interesting.
Ant spider
As the name suggests, it is a type of spider that looks similar to an ant.
This is because many creatures are afraid of ants, so by mimicking an ant, the risk of being attacked is reduced.
On the other hand, there is also information that there is a risk of being attacked by a natural enemy of ants by mistake, so in such cases, it refrains from ant-like movements.
What a clever guy lol.
In any case, the characteristic of mimicking an ant is meaningless in this mini-earth.
Spider mite
It is a mite that sucks leaf extracts.
It seems to basically suck from the underside of the leaf, so the reason they rush to the aquatic plants that protrude into the atmosphere may be because it is easier to suck than the duckweed that they use as a foothold.
What was surprising was that leaf mites also have the ability to produce silk.
This is probably it.
The purpose of leaf mites to produce silk is to attach their bodies to the plants they parasitize and to protect themselves from enemies.
The silk is thinner and stronger than that of spiders.
Wow, here comes some trivia!
What are these guys, they're the same kind of thread-makers!
Or rather, if you think about it, how do living things acquire the ability to make thread in the evolutionary history of the organism?
When we say thread, there's the thread that silkworms use to make cocoons, and even human body hair, isn't it thread?
Plant cotton is also a type of thread, isn't it?
But that's probably basically cellulose, so it seems evolutionarily more distant.
This is just my hope, but since there are so many mites, I wonder if crucian carp will start eating them instead of eating the relatively precious ghost shrimp and guppy fry.
I wish guppies would eat mites too. In that case, the duckweed, which is exposed to the most intense direct sunlight and grows by absorbing nutrients from the water (and at the same time purifying the water), would be eaten by the mites, and the mites would be eaten by the guppies, creating a hot food chain that crosses the border between the atmosphere and the water.
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