Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- PART I PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR RESPONSES
- 1 A primer on insect cold-tolerance
- 2 Rapid cold-hardening: Ecological significance and underpinning mechanisms
- 3 Antifreeze and ice-nucleator proteins
- 4 Genomics, proteomics and metabolomics: Finding the other players in insect cold-tolerance
- 5 Cell structural modifications in insects at low temperatures
- 6 Oxygen: Stress and adaptation in cold-hardy insects
- 7 Interactions between cold, desiccation and environmental toxins
- PART II ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSES
- PART III PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
- Index
- References
7 - Interactions between cold, desiccation and environmental toxins
from PART I - PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR RESPONSES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- PART I PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR RESPONSES
- 1 A primer on insect cold-tolerance
- 2 Rapid cold-hardening: Ecological significance and underpinning mechanisms
- 3 Antifreeze and ice-nucleator proteins
- 4 Genomics, proteomics and metabolomics: Finding the other players in insect cold-tolerance
- 5 Cell structural modifications in insects at low temperatures
- 6 Oxygen: Stress and adaptation in cold-hardy insects
- 7 Interactions between cold, desiccation and environmental toxins
- PART II ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSES
- PART III PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Climatic stressors are environmental factors of paramount importance for biological systems. Numerous examples from terrestrial plants and animals show that, in particular, cold and drought are factors that dictate the distribution of species (for a review see Hoffmann and Parsons, 1991). Indeed, sediment records of insect remains have been convincingly used to reconstruct past climates (e.g. Atkinson et al., 1987). Other important types of stress that should also be considered are environmental toxins. These may be of anthropogenic origin, but most originate from natural sources. Potentially toxic trace metals are released into ground water by demineralization of rocks and minerals and enter the food chain via plants. A wide variety of toxic organic compounds are produced by aquatic as well as terrestrial plants and animals as protection against herbivory or predation. Insects (and all other animals) have, during evolution, developed adaptive detoxifying mechanisms to cope with toxic stress. These protective systems are further challenged due to increasing levels of anthropogenic chemical pollution (e.g. pesticides and heavy metals) that have been inflicted on the biosphere at a global scale. Environmental toxins per se can have negative effects on the functioning of organisms, but the possibility also exists that some of these chemicals can impact tolerance mechanisms to dominating climatic variables such as cold and drought.
Insects and other organisms have evolved sophisticated physiological and biochemical mechanisms to cope with different environmental stressors.
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- Information
- Low Temperature Biology of Insects , pp. 166 - 188Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
References
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