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Biodiversity of the Southern Ocean

Authors :
Bruno David
Thomas Saucède
Bruno David
Thomas Saucède
Publication Year :
2015

Abstract

The Southern Ocean surrounding the Antarctic continent is vast, in particular, its history, its isolation, and climate, making it a unique'laboratory case'for experimental evolution, adaptation and ecology. Its evolutionary history of adaptation provide a wealth of information on the functioning of the biosphere and its potential. The Southern Ocean is the result of a history of nearly 40 million years marked by the opening of the Straits south of Australia and South America and intense cooling. The violence of its weather, its very low temperatures, the formation of huge ice-covered areas, as its isolation makes the Southern Ocean a world apart. This book discusses the consequences for the evolution, ecology and biodiversity of the region, including endemism, slowed metabolism, longevity, gigantism, and its larval stages; features which make this vast ocean a'natural laboratory'for exploring the ecological adaptive processes, scalable to work in extreme environmental conditions. Today, biodiversity of the Southern Ocean is facing global change, particularly in regional warming and acidification of water bodies. Unable to migrate further south, how will she cope, if any, to visitors from the North? - Designed for curious readers to discover the immense ocean surrounding the most isolated and most inhospitable continent on the planet. - Describes the Southern Ocean facing biodiversification due to global change - Authored by scientists with experience of expeditions to the Southern Ocean

Details

Language :
English
ISBNs :
9781785480478 and 9780081004852
Database :
eBook Index
Journal :
Biodiversity of the Southern Ocean
Publication Type :
eBook
Accession number :
1102850