This book provides a structured account of the full range of environments in Antarctica and of the microbial communities that live within them. Environments examined include: snow and ice; benthic marine; sea ice; lakes and streams; marginal ice; soil; the open ocean; rock. In the more extreme habitats of this region microscopic life forms constitute the entire biology of the habitat, but in all antarctic environments the microbial communities play a major and often dominant role in the transfer of carbon, nutrients and energy throughout the ecosystem. The book examines the major features of...

This is the first book to describe the ecology of high latitude lakes, rivers and glacial environments in both the North and South polar regions. From the lake-rich floodplains of the Arctic to the deep, enigmatic waters of Lake Vostok, Antarctica, these regions contain some of the most extraordinary aquatic ecosystems on Earth. They provide a fascinating diversity of habitats for plant, animal and microbial communities, and are proving to be valuable model systems for exploring many ecological themes including landscape-lake interactions, adaptation of life to environmental extremes, and...

This volume is derived from a symposium on High Latitude Limnology held during the 23rd Congress of the Societas Internationalis Limnologiae in Hamilton, New Zealand. The symposium stemmed from our belief that an exchange of views between limnologists working in the north and south polar zones would be timely and productive. Over the last decade there has been a major increase in the limnological research effort in Antarctica with the expansion of science programmes there by many nations from both the northern and southern hemispheres. Freshwater research has also continued to develop in the...