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BadKarmaSimulator t1_iudw1ke wrote

Reply to comment by Meri_Stormhood in What do fungi excrete, if at all? How would a permanent hyphae affect the ground its living in? by Meri_Stormhood

It would likely be competing with other fungi, as any hobby mushroom grower knows too well. You might be able to flavor the enzymes released by the fungi as a sort of acid-damage hazard (note that enzymes in real life are proteins that break down complex chemicals, not acids).

Fun fact, many pine trees in the US are dependent on an underground mycelium network for healthy growth and are limited when it's not present. When beavers flood an area with their ponds, this mycelium network is killed. So when the beaver pond inevitably fills with sediment and becomes a beaver meadow, rather than being repopulated with pine trees, the area is largely repopulated by trees like aspens that don't require that same mycellium network to thrive. And since beavers don't eat pine trees but DO eat aspens, this ends up with beavers creating and sustaining their own ecological niche.

Beaver facts!

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Meri_Stormhood OP t1_iudwijv wrote

Wow. Thats incredible! Thank you. I had thought about such idea, I'll give it a try- My problem is the description of the place, I do not know what remains of dirt (if it is dirt by that point) if fungi had eaten anything possible to eat in it.

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RightWritingRites t1_iuedkcg wrote

I am a fan of this story premise. A fantasy setting that's written as plausibly as a hard sci-fi, fantastic. The world needs more of these.

With an interest in this flavor of story, you've surely read the Inheritance Cycle by Paolini right?

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WaxyWingie t1_iug4p1q wrote

Huh, is there a book where one might read more about beavers in an entertaining manner described by yourself?

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BadKarmaSimulator t1_iuid2az wrote

"Once They were Hats" by Frances Backhouse is what you're looking for. She writes a compelling history of our near extermination of the species and explains much of the ecological impacts of their habitation and absence.

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WaxyWingie t1_iuix4bs wrote

Excellent, thank you. "Seas of slaughter" is a similar read, sounds like, concerned with marine species.

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