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The Sandworms

One can hardly describe the ecology of Arrakis without describing the Sandworm.

 

Sandworms are a species of megafauna unique to the deserts of Arrakis, specimens ranging from several meters to several kilometers depending on age and location. 

 

Possessing a large amount of keloid "rings" up and down their body, the Sandworms locomote by flexing them, allowing them to travel through the sand at a rate that would match most land vehicles.

 

The life cycle of the sandworm is very unique, however, its initial form that of a small foot-long worm known as a sandtrout, which survive in deep underground lakes and water flows.

 

When sandtrout reach a certain age, they seek out the largest body of water they can, and join any other sandtrout in the area. Excreting a sticky substance from their pores, the sandtrout begin to adhere to each other, forming the adult Sandworm and trapping huge volumes of water inside their body.

 

Due to each sandworm containing enough water to fill a small lake, they tend to avoid moisture, as it breaks down the bonds holding the individual sandtrout to each other, leading to the "death" of the sandworm as it is reduced down to its constituent sandtrout.

 

Thus, each sandworm will eventually grow old and seek out a proper place to die, breaking the bonds between the sandtrout and casting them out to find new water, the water previously contained inside it draining back into the various underground bodies.

 

However, this breaking down of the sandworm is essential to the process of cultivating "spice", which is actually the substance produced when a sandworm is killed, releasing the stored water, which is transformed by its internal organs to have the miraculous properties it has in humans. The method through which this transformation takes place is actually rather analogous to that of a Earth species, deep-sea worms that live around thermal vents.

 

Said oceanic worms openly cultivate bacteria and fungi within themselves, which oxidize the sulfide emitted from these vents and use the resulting energy to sustain the symbiotic relationship, and resulting in globules of sulfur as a product.

 

A similar reaction takes place deep inside the sandworm, symbiotic bacteria within the worm chemosynthesizing the compounds within the water in order to produce energy to sustain the titanic orgaism. Spice, then, would be the resulting product of the chemosynthesis that gathers in a sandworm's gullet once it has gone through this process enough times.

 

While far from the only animal native to Arrakis, the sandworm has the largest impact on its climate, the titanic worms' bodies serving as a method of natural terraforming in the same manner as plants do on Earth. Sandworm respiration produces enough air to allow Arrakis to sustain life, long after plant life stopped existing in any major amount. In addition, the constant tilling and burrowing the sandworms engage in transport minerals and nutrients from deep under the surface, leading to highly fertile soil in certain areas. 

 

Said soil would contain not only minerals churned up from deep beneath the surface of the planet, but also contain some of the water from Arrakis' groundwater systems. The areas where this occurrs would then feature some rainfall, as the soil's moisture evaporates into the atmosphere. However, these areas are few in number and tend to be centralized around areas of intense sandworm activity, so the Fremen rarely take advantage of them in their terraforming ventures. 

 

Before they become sandworms, sandtrout also need to eat. They primarily consume microorganisms colloquially referred to as sandplankton, which live in the bodies of water where they spend most of their early life. Being so massive in number, the collective respiration of the plankton required to feed a global population of sandtrout is enough to cause massive bubbles of gas to form under the sand, resulting in eruptions that are visible from several kilometers away.

 

Paired with the emissions from industry, which has existed since long before Arrakis became the desert planet is now and refused to move beyond fossil fuel as a source of power, and outgassing from volcanic activity could create the sort of greenhouse effect required to keep Arrakis at its constant arid climate.

 

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