Guido di Prisco – författare

From deep ocean trenches and the geographical poles to outer space, organisms can be found living in remarkably extreme conditions. This book provides a captivating account of these systems and their extraordinary inhabitants, 'extremophiles'. A diverse, multidisciplinary group of experts discuss responses and adaptations to change; biodiversity, bioenergetic processes, and biotic and abiotic interactions; polar environments; and life and habitability, including searching for biosignatures in the extraterrestrial environment. The editors emphasize that understanding these systems is important for increasing our knowledge and utilizing their potential, but this remains an understudied area. Given the threat to these environments and their biota caused by climate change and human impact, this timely book also addresses the urgency to document these systems. It will help graduate students and researchers in conservation, marine biology, evolutionary biology, environmental change and astrobiology better understand how life exists in these environments and their susceptibility or resilience to change.

This book discusses organisms from bacteria and ciliates to higher vertebrates that live on polar continental shelves, slopes and deep sea. Discussion includes shrinking sea ice, and organisms adapted to cold climates that are now vulnerable to rapid warming.

The poles undergo climate changes exceeding those in the rest of the world in terms of their speed and extent, and have a key role in modulating the climate of the Earth. Ecosystems adapted to polar environments are likely to become vulnerable to climate changes. Their responses allow us to analyse and foresee the impact of changes at lower latitudes. We need to increase our knowledge of the polar marine fauna of continental shelves, slopes and deep sea, as identifying the responses of species and communities is crucial to establishing efficient strategies against threats to biodiversity, using international and cross-disciplinary approaches. The IPY 2007-2009 was a scientific milestone. The outstanding contribution of Marine Biology is reflected in this volume and the next one on “Adaptation and Evolution in Marine Environments – The Impacts of Global Change on Biodiversity” from the series “From Pole to Pole”, making these volumes a unique and invaluable component of the scientific outcome of the IPY.

The poles undergo climate changes exceeding those in the rest of the world in terms of their speed and extent, and have a key role in modulating the climate of the Earth. Ecosystems adapted to polar environments are likely to become vulnerable to climate changes. Their responses allow us to analyse and foresee the impact of changes at lower latitudes. We need to increase our knowledge of the polar marine fauna of continental shelves, slopes and deep sea, as identifying the responses of species and communities is crucial to establishing efficient strategies against threats to biodiversity, using international and cross-disciplinary approaches. The IPY 2007-2009 was a scientific milestone. The outstanding contribution of Marine Biology is reflected in this volume and the next one on “Adaptation and Evolution in Marine Environments – The Impacts of Global Change on Biodiversity” from the series “From Pole to Pole”, making these volumes a unique and invaluable component of the scientific outcome of the IPY.

The second volume of “Adaptation and Evolution in Marine Environments – The Impacts of Global Change on Biodiversity” from the series “From Pole to Pole” integrates the marine biology contribution of the first tome to the IPY 2007-2009, presenting overviews of organisms (from bacteria and ciliates to higher vertebrates) thriving on polar continental shelves, slopes and deep sea. The speed and extent of warming in the Arctic and in regions of Antarctica (the Peninsula, at the present ) are greater than elsewhere. Changes impact several parameters, in particular the extent of sea ice; organisms, ecosystems and communities that became finely adapted to increasing cold in the course of millions of years are now becoming vulnerable, and biodiversity is threatened. Investigating evolutionary adaptations helps to foresee the impact of changes in temperate areas, highlighting the invaluable contribution of polar marine research to present and future outcomes of the IPY in the Earth system scenario.

In their very first lecture biochemists learn that biomolecules, namely nucleic acids, proteins and lipids, are extremely temperature sensitive and will denature and lose their function easily. Then how do Archaebacteria survive in hot springs or Antarctic fishes which live in ice-cold water? The way nature engineered subcellular structures, lipid membranes or proteins to meet the biochemical requirements of extreme conditions - like extreme temperature or salt concentrations - is described in Life Under Extreme Conditions.

Biology of Antarctic Fish presents the most recent findings on the biology of fish in the unique environment of the Antarctic ocean. At present the year-round temperature of the coastal waters is very near -1,87 ° C, the equilibrium temperature of the ice-seawater mixture. This extremely low temperature affects different levels of organization of fish life: individuals, organ systems, cells, organelles, membranes, and molecules. Exploring ecology, evolution, and life history as well as physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology of Antarctic fish the book describes the mechanisms of cold adaptation at all these levels. It provides material for discussion also for fundamental questions in the field of adaptation to an extreme environment and therefore is of particular interest not only to specialized scientists, but also to those involved in basic and evolutionary biology.

Following their own brilliant careers in haeme protein research, the outstanding scientists Jonathan and Beatrice Wittenberg continue to provide inspiration to the research community in the study of oxygen-binding proteins. Their research has provided the intellectual stimulus to bring together scientists from all over the world with the common goal of developing fascinating new ideas and performing innovative experiments. This book is dedicated to Jonathan’s and Bea’s lifetime careers. It further illuminates the facts and ideas which dot the paths they traced in Biochemistry and Physiology, elaborating on how these landmark achievements were made and how the haeme proteins community still refers to them. With the field of haeme protein science such a flourishing area, the contributors to this book predict Jonathan and Bea, having played such a seminal role, will continue to be key figures for quite some time to come.

Following their own brilliant careers in haeme protein research, the outstanding scientists Jonathan and Beatrice Wittenberg continue to provide inspiration to the research community in the study of oxygen-binding proteins. Their research has provided the intellectual stimulus to bring together scientists from all over the world with the common goal of developing fascinating new ideas and performing innovative experiments. This book is dedicated to Jonathan’s and Bea’s lifetime careers. It further illuminates the facts and ideas which dot the paths they traced in Biochemistry and Physiology, elaborating on how these landmark achievements were made and how the haeme proteins community still refers to them. With the field of haeme protein science such a flourishing area, the contributors to this book predict Jonathan and Bea, having played such a seminal role, will continue to be key figures for quite some time to come.

The Antarctic fish fauna has evolved over a long period of geographic and climatic isolation. In the course of this evolution, Antarctic fish have developed specialized adaptations, some of which characterize these organisms as unique. In strong contrast to the continental shelf faunas elsewhere, the Antarctic shelf ichthyofauna is dominated by a single highly endemic group, the Notothenioidei. This group of perciform fish probably first appeared and diversified in the early Tertiary. The development of the Polar Front (referred to as the Antarctic Convergence in the older literature) resulted in a natural oceanographic barrier to migration in either direction, and thus became a key factor in the evolution of Antarctic fish. The dominance of the Antarctic continental shelf fauna by a single taxonomic group of fish provides a simplified natural laboratory for exploring the wealth of physiological, biochemical and ecological adaptations that characterize the fauna. Understanding of the patterns of adaptation in this highly specialized group of fish can tell us much about of evolution.