Simultaneously Occurring Extremes: Charting the Boundaries of Habitability Space on Earth
Simultaneously Occurring Extremes: Charting the Boundaries of Habitability Space on Earth
- Event time: 1:00pm until 2:00pm
- Event date: 1st April 2019
- Speaker: Andrew Dickinson (Formerly School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
- Location: Room 2511, James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
The maximum range of environmental conditions that life can tolerate defines a habitable environment. The impacts of individual extremes and their effects on microbial life have been extensively studied and are commonly referenced when determining the habitability of a particular environment. Natural habitats, however, often require organisms to tolerate multiple extreme conditions in combination but despite this research into the combined influence of concomitant extremes is surprisingly limited.
Here we examine the effects of combined extremes of salinity, temperature and pH on microbial growth, asking the question of whether a combination of these extreme environmental parameters approaches the physico-chemical boundary of habitability space on earth.
To determine the window of tolerance to environmental pressures imposed on microbial life is an essential tool in furthering our understanding of the evolution and diversification of life on Earth, and in making clearer the potential habitability boundaries of life on Earth
About Condensed Matter lunchtime seminars
This is a weekly series of informal talks given primarily by members of the institute of condensed matter and complex systems, but is also open to members of other groups and external visitors. The aim of the series is to promote discussion and learning of various topics at a level suitable to the broad background of the group. Everyone is welcome to attend..