Ecology Question for a Homebrew

[johndaw16]

So I'm working on a part of my homebrew world that has a distinctly unique geography, and I'm looking for some opinions on what the ecology would be. That said, imagine.......

A land mass roughly 15-25 miles in total surface area, the only difference is that its suspended in the air at an elevation of roughly 5000-8000 feet. The landmass still has plenty of depth, say a couple of thousand feet or so, and retains its topsoil, bedrock, etc. It is one of a number of other similar landmass scattered over an area of a few hundred miles in area. What sort of ecology would be present there ? (I specifically mean on the floating landmass, not on the ground level beneath them) All I can come up with logically is possibly an ecology similar to what would be found on a mountain top at the same elevation. However it is essentially a landmass floating in the air, and who knows what sort of ecological havoc that would cause.

So I turn to the Enworlders, what do you think. I'll take scientific and non-scientific explanations, I just want something that'll make some sense. Thanks much.

John

 

[jgbrowning]

Two quick ideas:

1. Think birds. A good example would be New Zealand about 900 year ago before any humans arrived (if I'm remembering properly). Many ecological niches we traditionally associate with mammals/marsupials were filled by birds.

2. Water table? It may be very dry.

joe b.

 

[demiurge1138]

The islands are very dry, the moisture coming mostly from occasional rain and condensation. The primary lifeforms are birds and other flying creatures (I'm thinking that dragons like to nest up there - lots of privacy), with secondarily flightless lifeforms possibly common if they've been isolated for a while (ala Madagascar's elephant birds and New Zealand's kiwis and moas). Predation might be scarce (allowing for the more impractical flightless birds) or very common.

One fictional example of a similar ecology would be Batavia, from Dougal Dixon's After Man. Instead of birds colonizing a remote island, bats got there first. So you have flower-mimic bats who eat insects, seal-like bats living in the shoals (less likely for a floating island) and, of course, the velociraptor-esque top carnivore hellbats.

Demiurge out.

 

[Arkhandus]

Considering that we're talking about D&D and flying islands, I'd say: whatever kind of ecology you like. D&D doesn't need flying islands to have mountaintop-style ecology, they can be tropical, desert, arctic, temperate, or whatever you like. Whatever magical forces make the island float could also make the island's top surface count as sea level for purposes of determining climate at different elevations on the island. The further one gets from the island, the more the climate resembles what one would expect at the real elevation. But while on the island or a few (dozen?) miles away from it, climate is centered on the island's own personal geography and relative elevation.

Otherwise:
It could be very cold, with thin air, and home to various hardy plants, plant creatures, giant insects, giants (as in the creature type), very hairy and fatty dire animals (think ice-age sort of stuff; i.e. dire elephants as wooly mammoths, dire tigers as sabertooth tigers, dire rhinocerii as, uhh, whatever their ice-age ancestors were (the name's on the tip of my tongue, darnit!), etc.), certain races of aberration and magical beast, and critters such as rocs, owlbears, griffins, hippogriffs, pegasi, asperi, grey (gray?) renders, minotaurs, lizardfolk, and perhaps sahuagin and/or locathah.

I imagine it would be quite windy (and thus noisy) up there, though that would be mitigated somewhat if the island is surrounded by a ring of mountains. However, if surrounded by mountains, then the interior would hardly get any rain, if any, and would be exceedingly dry. Otherwise, it might be rather temperate or wet in environment; being that high up, it would probably have an odd effect on wind currents and perhaps jetstreams, as well as hot and cold fronts. It might be very stormy just above, or just below, the center of the island, or perhaps all around the perimeter of the island. Or it might just be rather rainy over the island and windy below it, or something. It might prevent any rain from getting to the surface far below the floating island, or it might be the reverse, with all rainclouds forming below the island and leaving the island itself parched. I'm no meteorologist or climatologist, so I can't really say for sure which of these outcomes is most probable.