Biosphere

When starting a new world, one may choose to play using either **biosphere** or the much simpler biomass. New players are recommended to use biomass to get the hang of the rest of the game first before attempting biospheres.

A planet will turn greener as the 'support' number of terrestrial plant life increases. Aquatic life, microorganism support and animal support have no effect on the planet's appearance. Terrestrial plant support (or abbreviated as TPS) is also necessary for a planet's habitability for humans. Technically, one doesn’t ever need to create aquatic biospheres, since they don't have any effect on habitability or the world's appearance. Species can, however, be used to generate revenue, depending on the genetic traits and give them.

When playing with the Biospheres feature, the population does not consume plants and is also not calculated into the 'support' metrics.

## Starting

Biospheres can start creating for the planet after reached PLANTLIFE habitability, and build buildings that support aquatic or terrestrial species.

Start a biosphere (either aquatic or terrestrial) by introducing a species of micro-organism, then decide this organism's phylum and genetic traits. Each phylum and trait has benefits and drawbacks. You can also repeat the same traits in one single organism. For example, you can have an organism that has the beautiful trait three times, and it will have three times the benefits and three times the drawbacks of that trait. The species cannot have two with the exact same phylum and genetic traits on the same world.

After introduce the first microorganisms, wait for them to reproduce until they offer enough support for the next layer of the biosphere, algae (aquatic) or plants (terrestrial). Creating plant or alga species works similarly to creating micro-organism species, but the phyla one can choose are different, and also one can choose some different traits. The plants or algae will need sufficient amounts of micro-organisms to already be present in order to survive. The amount they need is represented by 'support.' Similarly, herbivores will need sufficient amounts of plants to be present, and carnivores need sufficient amounts of herbivores to eat.

## Strategy Tips

* It's smart to make the first microorganisms/microbes of each phylum have the large trait three times, because that way it will offer a lot of support. Microorganisms/microbes themselves don't need any support, so there is no drawback to this.
* If the world is relatively stable, giving an organism the delicate trait a couple of times can generate a lot of revenue.
* If you're looking for long-term stability, a viable strategy is to avoid herbivore and carnivore species entirely, as their oxygen decreases will constantly be in flux with the plant increases. Since only plant support is needed for paradise, it can offset the plants' oxygen with facilities and avoid the complexity that animals add. If you want it to be set up where the oxygen change at paradise level( it can be any level that's above the plant's ideal oxygen environment ) will be positive, and will become negative as the plant's health gradually decreases cause of the rising oxygen.
* If you want long-term stability with animals and no facilities, adjust the conservation of the animals, so that they will consume more oxygen than the plants produce when the oxygen levels are high.
* Open the world frequently to update what the oxygen change is going to be. If you don't, you may find that after a long enough period of time, the biosphere could collapse because of too little or too much oxygen. It is recommended to pause the world if want to keep it long term.
* If you don't have enough terrestrial plant support, just add more microorganisms, increase conservation on the plants, or simply add even more plants.

## Genetic Code

Each phylum and each trait has its own genetic code, made up out of three letters. Only the letters A, G, C and T (not U) are used. This way, each organism you create has its own unique genetic code of 15 letters. This is visually represented in a double helix (like a strand of DNA), which, from top to bottom, represents each letter in the code. An A turns one bar red, a G is green, a C is blue and a T is yellow.

## Health

Each species has a specific health value, which is calculated based on a couple of variables.

* The first such variable is how well the species is adapted to the environment. A species that have made vulnerable to droughts will for example do worse on a planet with low water levels.
* The second variable is how much food (support) is available for it compared to how much it needs (this is irrelevant for microorganisms/microbes).
* The third variable is Conservation. it can choose to spend credits to either help a species gain or lose health, conserve it or cull (kill) it. This is the best way to stabilize oxygen on Biosphere worlds.
* The fourth variable is random biosphere events. Sometimes a Harsh Winter or a Favorable Summer will decrease or increase a species health temporarily. Poaching can even decrease a species' health permanently, while having the species become a Popular Pet increases health permanently. The game calls this type of reduction or increase a 'modifier.'
* The fifth variable is how many predators a species has. A species is not only affected by the species 'underneath' it (like a plant is 'underneath' a herbivore, and a herbivore is 'underneath' a carnivore), but also by the species above it. A particularly favorable summer for a carnivore species can mean they will eat all the herbivores and destroy entire ecosystem if don't monitor them closely and cull when necessary. (Only applies to expert mode).

When first introduce a species, it has two health values, a low one, and a high one, with an arrow between them. The first one is the species current health, and the one after the arrow is the species projected health. The species will move towards that health value over time. Species with increased or decreased birth rates move towards that value quicker or slower.

 Threatened
 Healthy
 Rampant
 Overpopulated

It's okay if have species that have overpopulated health stats. That just means they will provide a lot of support for their predators. Give them some predators.

If a species has more health, that means the effects that species has will also increase. For example if the species produces oxygen, then that species will produce more oxygen as it gains more health. An overpopulated species that produces revenue is not at all a bad thing. It just gets more money.

When a species reaches 0% health, it goes extinct.

#### Extinction

*The last known [species] on [world] has died. Scientists are now classifying the entire [species] as extinct.*

*The remaining species are already adapting to its absence, but ecologists warn that now is the time to pay extra-close attention, to avoid any further damage to the biosphere.*

## Oxygen

A world that uses Biospheres is more difficult to balance than one that uses biomass, since plants, algae and microorganisms/microbes produce oxygen and some animal species use oxygen up, and a species' health score affects how much oxygen it produces or uses. Species' health can be very volatile. All plants and algae will do photosynthesis and produce oxygen, but some traits will make them produce more or less oxygen. The oxygen will only stabilize if there's something actively removing the oxygen, whether that be from facilities or herbivores and carnivores.

## Native Species

Sometimes a world already has native species (random worlds have that). Native species have a purple icon, while species introduced by player have blue icons. Species introduced by the Mutation event will automatically be named [name]+[species name they mutated from]. In the past, mutant varieties of native species used to not be treated as native species, but that is no longer the case. However, mutant non-native species remain native in name only.

In the non-random worlds that have a biosphere, it's possible for traits that are usually not possible on an organism to be present. Example Phytoplankton on Rodinia having photosynthetic, a trait that is normally exclusive to plants.

## Biosphere Events

All biosphere events can be found here:
*Main article: Biosphere/Events*

## Buildings

Adding species to Biospheres
 Reef Institute | +3 aquatic species

When disable buildings that provide space for healthy species, the species don't lose any health, but can't introduce new species.