XIV. Summary and Acknowledgements
Let
me summarize the points I've tried to make in this lecture. I began with
one central question, namely, "What adaptations permit life in the
deep sea?" I've tried to show what types of adaptations allow organisms
to tolerate the conditions of high pressure, variable temperature, and low
concentrations of oxygen found in the deep sea. Other types of adaptations capacity
adaptations establish the rates of life. We saw that the ultimate cause of
the low rate of life in the pelagic realm, at least in the case of visually-oriented
predators like fishes and crustaceans, is the low level of light that is
available to seek food by visual means. The reduction in selection for strong
locomotory activities has led to greatly reduced ATP generating capacity
in pelagic fishes and crustaceans.
The people who deserve the credit here in the research with tolerance
adaptations are former students, Drs. Elizabeth Dahlhoff, Allen Gibbs, John
O'Brien, Rob Swezey and Tzung-Horng Yang. The capacity adaptation work has
been done jointly with Jim Childress and one of his former students Joseph
Torres. Thank you very much.
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