Assistant Professor McGill University, Quebec, Canada
Inspired by Oregon’s coastal dunes, Frank Herbert, the author of Dune, described the ecological processes taking place on the Arrakis, a harsh desert planet and the main setting of Dune. But how realistic is the ecological community inhabiting Arrakis? Is the structure of the food web similar to the ones we find on Earth? Since most species on Arrakis were introduced by humans from Earth, we can use their functional traits to predict the planet’s food web. Using this predicted food web, I ask if Dune’s food web shares the same structural backbone as the ones we have on earth.
