Ecophysiology

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The eco-physiology ( Engl. : Physiological ecology , environmental physiology ) deals with aspects of physiology that are directly related to the environment of the species concerned. Physiological ecology and autecology deal with similar topics, but with an even stronger focus on the issue of ecology , but the contents of these research directions often merge.

Topics of ecophysiology

Ecophysiology studies the properties of animals and plants that interact with the environment and can often be seen as adaptations to their respective habitats: for example, the adaptation of metallophytes to high heavy metal concentrations in the soil, a thick fur in arctic mammals or the echo orientation in bats and river dolphins. Also peculiarities and adaptations of the energy balance of animals (for example use for homoiothermia in cool climates) are considered as research contents of ecophysiology.

In the field of microbiology, ecophysiology is largely to be equated with the research content of the physiology of microorganisms . As a result of the rapid and intensive selection effects in microorganisms, it also easily transitions into the subject areas of genetics. Some applied orientations of microbiological physiology or ecophysiology specifically examine the adaptation to environmental pollution (for example to organic substances in water or soil, to high salinity or to anoxic conditions).

Botanically oriented ecophysiologists

Ernst Stahl , among others, is considered to be the founder of the botanically oriented ecophysiology . In the first half of the 20th century Otto Stocker , Bruno Huber and Heinrich Walter made significant contributions to this area of ​​knowledge. Among the later ecophysiologists with a botanical orientation in German-speaking countries are Otto Ludwig Lange (1927–2017, University of Würzburg ), Walter Larcher (* 1929, University of Innsbruck ), Ernst-Detlef Schulze (* 1941, MPI for Biogeochemistry in Jena), Christian Körner ( born 1949, University of Basel ) and Donat-Peter Häder ( Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg ) are examples.

Zoologically oriented ecophysiologists

Well-known and influential ecophysiologists zoological orientation were George A. Bartholomew (1919-2006) and Knut Schmidt-Nielsen (1915-2007).

In the field of energetic and auto-ecologically oriented ecophysiology, later worked in German-speaking countries (at least in parts of their work directions)

In addition, numerous representatives of neuro-, sensory and behavioral physiology can be described as zoological ecophysiologists, for example Gerhard Neuweiler (1935–2008, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich ) and several others.

Exemplary literature

  • Sidney Donald Bradshaw: Vertebrate Ecophysiology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003.
  • Peter Calow: Evolutionary Physiological Ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1987.
  • Walter Larcher: Physiological Plant Ecology. Springer, 4th edition 2001.
  • BK McNab: The Physiological Ecology of Vertebrates: A view from energetics. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London, 2002