Description: 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.
Brief description: Josef Elster is Professor in the Centre for Polar Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, and senior scientist, Phycology Centre, Institute of Botany, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Třeboň, Czech Republic. His expertise is in the field and laboratory study of polar cyanobacteria and microalgae. He has led or been a member of many polar research expeditions and was founder of the Czech Arctic Research Infrastructure 'Josef Svoboda Station', Svalbard.
Review Quotes: '... the volume is interesting, stimulating, and thought-provoking. It points toward many important and potentially useful directions for both basic and applied research. The technical level at which most chapters are written will probably limit their accessibility to general audiences. The two chapters on astrobiology will appeal to anyone interested in space exploration.' Malcolm S. Gordon, The Quarterly Review of Biology