Some forms of mirror life could still cause catastrophic damage to the environment even though normal life will eventually adapt to consume them. The form of mirror life most capable of causing enormous disruption would be a mirror cyanobacterium, followed by a mirror grass. This is because multicellular lifeforms would not be able to quickly adapt to a mirror diet.
Mirror cyanobacteria would largely replace normal cyanobacteria in the ocean because they are still difficult for most lifeforms to eat. Zooplankton, small marine invertebrates and some filter feeders would immediately struggle to digest mirror cyanobacteria, causing starvation. Afterwards, the rest of the food chain crumbles due to a dramatically reduced food supply. Additional damage could be cased by people incidentally overfishing the oceans without realizing that mirror cyanobacteria were already putting strain on fish populations.
A mirror grass would cause similar problems on land since herbivores cannot get sufficient nutrition from D-sugars. It might be possible to process D-amino acids into L-amino acids, but I don’t think an eukaryotic cell can process these compounds efficiently enough to stay alive. As a result, a food chain collapse still occurs.
Eventually, since there would be a strong selective pressure to avoid eating mirror cyanobacteria whenever possible. I do not know if zooplankton will be able to immediately distinguish and reject mirror cyanobacteria because I do not know how zooplankton determine whether a potential food item is edible or not. Regardless, discerning lifeforms would still risk starvation because mirror cyanobacteria would outcompete normal cyanobacteria.
Edited Second Sentence for Clarity: (Old) However, I’m not sure if mirror cyanobacteria would initially taste bad to zooplankton and consequentially get rejected. --> (New) I do not know if zooplankton will be able to immediately distinguish and reject mirror cyanobacteria because I do not know how zooplankton determine whether a potential food item is edible or not.
Some forms of mirror life could still cause catastrophic damage to the environment even though normal life will eventually adapt to consume them. The form of mirror life most capable of causing enormous disruption would be a mirror cyanobacterium, followed by a mirror grass. This is because multicellular lifeforms would not be able to quickly adapt to a mirror diet.
Mirror cyanobacteria would largely replace normal cyanobacteria in the ocean because they are still difficult for most lifeforms to eat. Zooplankton, small marine invertebrates and some filter feeders would immediately struggle to digest mirror cyanobacteria, causing starvation. Afterwards, the rest of the food chain crumbles due to a dramatically reduced food supply. Additional damage could be cased by people incidentally overfishing the oceans without realizing that mirror cyanobacteria were already putting strain on fish populations.
A mirror grass would cause similar problems on land since herbivores cannot get sufficient nutrition from D-sugars. It might be possible to process D-amino acids into L-amino acids, but I don’t think an eukaryotic cell can process these compounds efficiently enough to stay alive. As a result, a food chain collapse still occurs.
Mirror cyanobacteria would be less likely to be successfully digested for nutrients, but would they be less likely to be eaten by zooplankton?
Eventually, since there would be a strong selective pressure to avoid eating mirror cyanobacteria whenever possible. I do not know if zooplankton will be able to immediately distinguish and reject mirror cyanobacteria because I do not know how zooplankton determine whether a potential food item is edible or not. Regardless, discerning lifeforms would still risk starvation because mirror cyanobacteria would outcompete normal cyanobacteria.
Edited Second Sentence for Clarity: (Old) However, I’m not sure if mirror cyanobacteria would initially taste bad to zooplankton and consequentially get rejected. --> (New) I do not know if zooplankton will be able to immediately distinguish and reject mirror cyanobacteria because I do not know how zooplankton determine whether a potential food item is edible or not.