Examples of Diverse Ecosystems in a New World: 3 Story-Ready Biomes

If you want striking examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world, start by flipping something familiar inside out. Imagine an ocean that lost its water but kept its currents.

The Glass Tides are a continent-sized “dry ocean” made of powdered crystal, salt flats, and dunes that move like slow-motion waves. Instead of water, the currents are wind and electrostatic storms. Instead of fish, you have burrowing gliders and sail-backed grazers surfing the dunes.

How this ecosystem works

At sunrise, the ground temperature spikes toward 120°F. Fine mineral dust rises into the air, forming glittering “fog banks” that scatter light and block vision. Predators use these blinding clouds as cover. Plant-analogs—photosynthetic crystal lattices—grow in ridges where underground aquifers rise closest to the surface.

In this example of a land-based “ocean,” diversity comes from microclimates:

• Shaded canyons act like coral reefs, sheltering moisture-loving mosses and pale, eyeless animals.
• Ridge crests are like open ocean—harsh, exposed, but rich in wind-borne nutrients.
• Sinkholes form oases that host completely different food webs.

Real-world inspiration for this kind of layered desert system includes the biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert and Sahara, which host surprisingly rich life where water concentrates in tiny pockets. The U.S. National Park Service has accessible material on desert ecosystem complexity and microhabitats: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/deserts/index.htm

Species and survival strategies

For world-building, the best examples of diverse ecosystems always show how life cheats the rules. In the Glass Tides, that might look like:

• Sandwhales: Bus-sized, filter-feeding grazers that swallow sand, digest microbial films and crystal-lichens, and exhale plumes of cleaned dust. Their migration routes are the “trade winds” of the desert.
• Mirror raptors: Six-limbed hunters with mirrored scales that reflect the blinding sun, turning them into invisible heat mirages until they strike.
• Glassroot groves: Buried “trees” whose only visible parts are clear, blade-like leaves poking from the sand. Their roots spread for miles, trading water and minerals through fungal networks.

Different valleys, dunes, and canyons host different variants of these species. One canyon might have sandwhales that glow faintly at night due to symbiotic microbes; another might have smaller, more agile versions adapted to steeper terrain. That’s how you get multiple examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world from a single overarching biome.

Culture and story hooks

Humanoids (or your species of choice) don’t just survive here—they evolve around the rules of the Glass Tides:

• Nomadic cultures follow sandwhale migrations, using their shed plates as armor and building materials.
• City-states form around stable sinkhole oases, controlling access to deep aquifers.
• Religion centers on the “Great Reversal”: the mythic flood that once turned a real ocean into this glittering desert.

Plot hooks:

• A newly opened canyon reveals a “fossil reef” of crystal towers, filled with dormant spores that could re-green the desert—or poison it.
• A wind-shift changes the dune “current,” cutting off trade routes and stranding caravans.
• A character discovers that the sandwhales are slowly migrating toward something no one has ever seen: the desert’s true edge.

In this first of our 3 examples, notice how one core twist—desert as ocean—branches into multiple sub-biomes, each with its own food web, culture, and conflicts.

2. The Mycelial Crown: A Planet-Spanning Fungal Forest

For the second of our examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world: 3 examples wouldn’t feel complete without a mega-forest. But instead of trees, imagine a living lattice of fungi.

The Mycelial Crown is a continental canopy of fungal “trees” that grow in braided pillars, forming bridges, platforms, and towers. Below, the forest floor is dim, damp, and thick with spores. Above, the canopy is sunlit and surprisingly dry, home to gliding animals and symbiotic plants.

Vertical diversity: layers within layers

One of the best examples of how to build diversity into a single ecosystem is to think vertically:

• Upper Canopy: Huge fungal caps flatten into overlapping parasols, catching sun and rain. Photosynthetic algae and mosses colonize their tops, creating green “rooftop gardens.”
• Mid-Level Galleries: Hollow fungal trunks form tunnels and chambers, glowing with bioluminescent bacteria. These spaces are used by animals—and maybe sapient species—as roads.
• Forest Floor: Thick, spongy mats of decomposers break down everything that falls. Pools of nutrient-rich ooze support blind, translucent creatures.

Real-world mycorrhizal networks (the underground fungal webs that connect trees) are a great scientific springboard for this. Research from institutions like Oregon State University has popularized the idea of forests as complex, communicating systems: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/mycorrhizae-natures-internet

Species, signals, and symbiosis

In this example of a fungal mega-biome, communication is as important as predation:

• Signal storms: The entire forest can shift color when threatened, as different fungal species pulse with bioluminescent warnings.
• Spore tides: Periodic mass releases of spores create seasonal “weather"—thick clouds that alter visibility, breathing, and even behavior.
• Symbiotic guilds: Animals and plants form alliances with specific fungal strains, trading waste, movement, or protection for nutrients.

Examples include:

• Spore-singers: Bird-like creatures whose songs stimulate certain fungi to release nutrients, effectively “farming” the forest.
• Hollowback beetles: Insects with living fungal gardens growing in their shells, used by sapient species as portable medicine kits.
• Crown gliders: Four-winged mammals that only land on specific, non-toxic caps; their fur is seeded with spores that can only germinate in the upper canopy.

Each region of the Crown might host its own fungal lineages and animal partners, giving you multiple examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world just by traveling 200 miles in any direction.

Culture, conflict, and disease

Fungal worlds practically beg for storylines about health and infection. For grounded inspiration, modern medical research on fungal diseases and emerging pathogens is rich material; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains updated information on fungal threats and their complexity: https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/index.html

In your setting:

• Some communities might worship “The Crown” as a single deity, believing the entire forest is one mind.
• Others treat it like an internet: they’ve learned to send chemical messages through the mycelial network.
• A splinter faction wants to sever their region from the global network to escape a spreading fungal plague.

Story hooks:

• A character can “listen” to the forest, sensing emotional echoes through fungal signals.
• A new hybrid fungus appears, resistant to traditional controls, forcing characters to choose between burning sections of the Crown or risking global collapse.
• Two cultures fight over a rare, mind-altering fungus that grows only where three major mycelial networks overlap.

This second of our 3 examples shows how one biome can feel like a whole planet’s worth of settings if you build in vertical layers, symbiosis, and regional variation.

3. The Skywoven Archipelago: Islands in the Air

For the third of our examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world: 3 examples would be boring if we stayed on the ground. So let’s go airborne.

The Skywoven Archipelago is a chain of floating landmasses suspended in a dense, stormy atmosphere. Think of them as islands bobbing in a sea of clouds, each with its own climate, species, and culture.

Atmospheric gradients as habitats

Instead of latitude, diversity here comes from altitude. As you move up or down, temperature, pressure, and chemistry change, creating stacked ecosystems:

• Low Shroud: Warm, humid, and turbulent. Giant balloon-plants float, filled with lighter-than-air gases. Predators lurk below the islands, leaping up in surprise attacks.
• Middle Belt: Mild and relatively stable. Most inhabited islands drift here, trading via airships and gliding beasts.
• High Veil: Thin air, freezing temperatures, and intense radiation. Only specialized crystal-plants and ice-feeding creatures survive.

NASA and other space agencies have studied the idea of airborne life in gas giant atmospheres, which can help you ground this in semi-plausible physics. NASA’s Astrobiology program has public-facing material on life in extreme environments: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/

Island-to-island diversity

Every island is its own ecological experiment. Some examples include:

• Stormglass Atolls: Small islands ringed by natural lightning rods. Their soils are rich in fused glass and metals, supporting electricity-feeding organisms.
• Mistfall Groves: Islands that constantly shed waterfalls of condensation into the clouds below, creating vertical migration routes for fish-like gliders.
• Sunward Spires: Needle-thin islands that reach into the High Veil, home to hardy, radiation-adapted lichens and winged reptiles with reflective scales.

This gives you multiple examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world within one overarching concept. A single voyage across the archipelago can feel like visiting different planets.

Species and movement

Movement defines life here:

• Kitewhales: Massive, manta-like creatures that ride thermal currents between islands, seeded with hitchhiking plants and parasites.
• Anchor trees: Huge, root-tentacled plants that grow along the island edges, dangling nutrient-hungry roots into the cloud layer below.
• Skybarnacles: Shell-creatures that cling to the undersides of islands, filtering trace minerals and organic dust from the wind.

Sapient species might:

• Breed gliding mounts adapted to specific altitudes.
• Develop cultures obsessed with cartography and wind patterns.
• Treat islands as ships, steering them slowly over decades using engineered ballast and plant growth.

Story hooks:

• A long-lost island returns from a centuries-long drift through the High Veil, its ecosystem warped by radiation.
• A new type of storm appears, shearing islands in half and forcing rapid evacuation.
• A religious order claims that falling off an island doesn’t mean death—it means joining a hidden ecosystem deeper in the clouds.

Using These 3 Examples to Design Your Own Diverse Ecosystems

We’ve walked through three anchor concepts: the Glass Tides desert-ocean, the Mycelial Crown fungal forest, and the Skywoven Archipelago of floating islands. Together, they give you multiple examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world: 3 examples that are wildly different but built on the same design logic.

Here are some patterns you can steal outright:

Flip an assumption.

• Ocean with no water.
• Forest with no trees.
• Islands with no sea.

This simple trick gives you an instant example of a setting that feels fresh.

Layer your environments.

The best examples of diverse ecosystems don’t stop at “this is a desert” or “this is a forest.” They ask:

• What’s happening underground?
• What’s happening in the canopy or sky?
• How do conditions change over 50 feet of elevation, not just 500 miles of travel?

Real-world ecology is obsessed with these layers. If you want more grounded inspiration, the U.S. Geological Survey offers accessible ecosystem overviews that can feed your imagination: https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/ecosystems

Tie culture to ecology.

Your world feels real when people are shaped by their ecosystems:

• Desert cultures that navigate by sandwhale migration.
• Fungal-forest societies that literally “plug in” to the network.
• Sky-island traders whose calendars are based on wind shifts.

Each of these is an example of how to turn a pretty landscape into a story engine.

Let diversity create conflict.

When you think about examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world, don’t just list biomes—ask how they clash:

• A sky island crashes into the Mycelial Crown, introducing invasive species.
• Glass Tides traders bring desert fungi into the Crown, disrupting local networks.
• A fungal spore storm drifts up into the Skywoven Archipelago, changing cloud chemistry.

Suddenly, your three separate settings become one interconnected world.

FAQ: World-Building and Diverse Ecosystems

How can I come up with my own examples of diverse ecosystems in a new world?

Start with a familiar biome (forest, tundra, savanna) and change one big variable: gravity, light color, atmosphere, or dominant life form. Then ask how that change affects water, food webs, and culture. Use the 3 examples above as templates: each takes a recognizable idea and pushes it sideways.

What is a good example of using real science in fictional ecosystems?

A strong example of science-inspired world-building is basing your fungal mega-forest on real mycorrhizal networks and decomposition cycles. You don’t have to be perfectly accurate, but borrowing ideas from real ecology—like nutrient cycles, keystone species, and microhabitats—helps your invented ecosystems feel grounded.

How detailed should I get when designing ecosystems for my story or game?

Go as detailed as you need for the story beats you care about. If your plot hinges on a spore storm or a sandwhale migration, sketch out how that system works. If a location is just a backdrop for one scene, broad strokes are fine. Many of the best examples of fictional ecosystems pick one or two memorable rules and then apply them consistently.

Can I mix these 3 examples in a single world?

Absolutely. You might have a world where the Glass Tides border the Mycelial Crown, with the Skywoven Archipelago drifting overhead. The tension between these environments—trade, war, disease, religion—can drive entire campaigns or series.

Where can I learn more about real ecosystems to inspire my world-building?

Look for accessible material from scientific and educational organizations. The National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and NASA’s Astrobiology program all publish public-friendly resources that can spark ideas. Studying real deserts, forests, and extreme environments will give you endless examples to twist into your own new worlds.