Atmosphere balance on Dune?

[Elemenz]

Haven't read the dune encyclopedia yet, and i'm not even sure if this matter is explained in a satisfying way in this book either, so i ask you guys:

Explain me these things:

how come the fremen and nomads wear cotton/animal skin clothings?

no animals, no plants, to keep up any kind production of that scale to provide an ecosystem for the needs of all those millions of people on dune.

The dead worms create spice bumps that explode and let oxygen into the atmosphere, and water?

Windtrap sounds okay, not enough moisture density to make it rain on dune, but

where does this... ffs.

I mean, all those people breathing, even if there was originally a atmosphere similar to our planet earth, the oxygen would've been consumed long ago on dune without trees or plants which photosyntese, (excuse my bad english...)

produce oxygen and tie carbon monoxide... you know what i'm after here.

And besides, what the hell do sandworms eat to get that huge? even blue whales don't grow that big even though they eat like tons of proteins and stuff every day... wtf?

There are like a houndred gaps and glitches and unlogical ticks in the duniverse that make me itch.

Still, love it, good book.

Explanation anyone ?

Thanks...  :P

[Emperor Harkonnen]

The worms produce oxygen just as we produce CO2 when we breath.

The worms eat sand.

[TMA_1]

hey I hear ya man, I felt the same way about it but I began to fit all the pieces together. So now it makes a lot more sense to me than when I first read the books. Let me mention one thing though that explanations are not always necissary for some books. Some fiction requires a vast database on explanations and whatnot to keep the story coherant. In Dune though these explanations are not important. The great thing is though is that a lot of it is explained, you just have to look in the right places. I havent read the whole series in one big batch in a long time, but I have read some of the novels not too long ago once again. I iwll try answering some of your questions, then I suggest IMing Vanguard3000 about it if he doesnt see this post quickly (hope that doesnt bother you vanny, but you are the master at this stuffa nd I figure you would know better than anybody on the duniverse boards).

The Fremen wear many different things. Remember that they arent really true natives of Dune, and they are definitely not backwards. They have their own manufacturing capabilities, and can turn the spice into many different useful materials. They trade with outsiders and obviously this is one way that they could recieve garments. The most prevalent way though is from the spice itself. I forget where, but in one of the books it describes one of the fremen's clothing as being made of spice fibers, synthasized for that specific purpose. So you have many explanations for this case.

Dune's ecosystem works around the ancient but not native animal which is the Great Sandworm. These sandworms actually have a sort of furnace inside their bellies, and through their conversion of chemicals in the atmosphere, and also small single celled organisms in the sands of arrakis itself, it can obtain sustinance. One of the byproducts that the sandworms give off is oxygen, and a lot of it. Arrakis has a normal amount of Nitrogen, which is/was produced through normal tectonic and solar, and chemical means. Also the single celled "sand plankton" also gives off oxygen as a byproduct. This is sketchy, but it is explained in the books, and this is how the ecosystem roughly works. If anybody has any extra stuff to add, please do because I could be missing a few details.

The sandtrout create the spice blows. These are created when sandtrout concentrate towards one another, sucking in as much liquid that is under the surface of arrakis. This is why there is almost no water on or in the surface of arrakis. The sandtrouts byproducts from conversion of water and whatnot is the Spice. Once the pressure becomes too great inside the bubble of concentrated sandtrout, it explodes and the Spice is deposited on the surface.

Again many of our byproducts are used in the fuel conversion for Sandworms and the "sand plankton", so that it creates a symbiont circle kinda like our ecosystem on earth with the plantea and animalia subgroups.

Again the sandworms dont feed like normal animals do, and these worms take thousands upon thousands of years to grow into the "Old Fathers of the Desert". They must convert various fuels in order to survive,a nd this takes a heck of a long time. The reason why they are so big is because they genetically have the ability to grow larger and larger, without a real stop or platau.

I hope this kinda helps. If anybody has anything to add, or if there are any corrections please post. :)

[Tako]

first of all one round of applause to You TMA  ::)

tohelp you out:

I think it was in book one paul told his mother that it was incredible that the fremen made averything from spice blabla and clothes

and some extra info:

When the spice-bubble explodes the surviving sandtroughts swim of and become little makers themself (survivel of the fittest)

[Vanguard3000]

TMA has explained things very well.

[TMA_1]

damn freaking straight vanguard! lol good call man :)

[Davidu]

You know someone ( Van or TMA) should write some essay or something on that and post it on the site. Such explanations are needed.

[Vanguard3000]

Like I said, someone did.  His name was Kynes.  ;)

Seriously, the book offers more information on the topic than I could possibly remember (because my memory sucks).