Strategies and adaptations to aquatic life at high altitude

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Jacobsen ◽  
Olivier Dangles
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Low Temperatures ◽  
Cold Adaptation ◽  
Inorganic Carbon ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Aquatic Life ◽  
Dissolved Carbon ◽  
Dissolved Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Regulatory Capacity

Chapter 5 is focused on how organisms cope with the environmental conditions that are a direct result of high altitude. Organisms reveal a number of fascinating ways of dealing with a life at high altitude; for example, avoidance and pigmentation as protection against damaging high levels of ultraviolet radiation, accumulation of antifreeze proteins, and metabolic cold adaptation among species encountering low temperatures with the risk of freezing, oxy-regulatory capacity in animals due to low availability of oxygen, and root uptake from the sediment of inorganic carbon by plants living in waters poor in dissolved carbon dioxide. These and more adaptations are carefully described through a number of examples from famous flagship species in addition to the less well-known ones. Harsh environmental conditions work as an environmental filter that only allows the well-adapted species to slip through to colonize high altitude waters.

Living conditions in high altitude waters

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Jacobsen ◽  
Olivier Dangles
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Low Oxygen ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Abiotic Environment ◽  
Low Oxygen Pressure

Chapter 3 deals with the abiotic environment in high altitude lakes and streams worldwide. It searches for general patterns in relation to altitude, without overlooking the enormous variability, both temporally as well as at small and large spatial scales. Overall, environmental conditions in high altitude waters may be regarded as harsh. Indeed, certain features such as low temperature, low oxygen pressure, and high ultraviolet radiation (all a direct result of high altitude) as well as transparent and ion-poor waters with low nutrient concentrations are typical of high altitude aquatic systems. However, streams and lakes turbid from inflow of glacial meltwater loaded with glacial mineral flour and peatbogs with deep brown water from a high concentration of coloured dissolved organic matter are equally prominent. So, evidently, environmental conditions in aquatic systems are probably just as variable at high as at low altitudes.

Impact of Dursban and Abate on Microbial Numbers and Some Chemical Properties of Standing Ponds

1975 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Butcher ◽  
M. Boyer ◽  
CD. Fowle
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Active Ingredient ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Dissolved Carbon ◽  
Photosynthetic Productivity ◽  
Dissolved Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Microbial Numbers

Abstract Eleven small ponds, lined with polyethylene, were used to assess the consequences of applications of *DursbanR at 0.004, 0.030, 0.100 and 1.000 ppm and AbateR at 0.025 and 0.100 ppm active ingredient. The treated ponds showed a more pronounced long-term increase in pH and dissolved oxygen and decreasing total and dissolved carbon dioxide in comparison with untreated ponds. Algal blooms were of longer duration in treated ponds than in controls. Total photosynthetic productivity was higher in treated ponds but bacterial numbers did not change significantly. Photosynthetic productivity was estimated by following the changes in total carbon dioxide.

scholarly journals Morphological variation in Leptorhynchos squamatus (Gnaphalieae: Asteraceae)

2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Flann ◽  
Pauline Y. Ladiges ◽  
Neville G. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Morphological Variation ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Leaf Size ◽  
Alpine Plants ◽  
The Other ◽  
Herbarium Specimens ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Low Altitude

A study of morphological variation in Leptorhynchos squamatus (Labill.) Less. across its range in south-eastern Australia was undertaken to test the hypothesis that L. squamatus includes two taxa. Phenetic pattern analyses of both field-collected and herbarium specimens on the basis of morphology confirmed two major groups. Bract, cypsela, pappus bristle and leaf characters were particularly important in separating the two groups. The taxa are separated by altitude differences with one being a low-altitude plant found in many habitats and the other being a high-altitude taxon that is a major component of alpine meadows. Lowland plants have dark bract tips, fewer and wider pappus bristles than alpine plants, papillae on the cypselas and more linear leaves. A somewhat intermediate population from the Major Mitchell Plateau in the Grampians shows some alpine and some lowland characters but is included in the lowland taxon. Seeds from five populations (two alpine, two lowland and Major Mitchell) were germinated and plants grown for 18 weeks under four controlled sets of environmental conditions. The experiment showed that leaf size and some other characters are affected by environmental conditions, but that there are underlying genetic differences between the lowland and alpine forms. Leptorhynchos squamatus subsp. alpinus Flann is described here to accommodate the highland taxon.

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