Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- PART I General concepts
- PART II Compensatory adaptations in cold ocean environments
- Adaptation to cold and depth: contrasts between polar and deep-sea animals
- Temperature and growth rates as modulators of the metabolic capacities of fish muscle
- Energetic aspects of cold adaptation: critical temperatures in metabolic, ionic and acid-base regulation?
- Physiological and evolutionary aspects of myoglobin expression in the haemoglobinless Antarctic icefishes
- Oxygen transport systems in extreme environments: multiplicity and structure-function relationship in haemoglobins of Antarctic fish
- Membrane lipid and protein adaptations in Antarctic fish
- Kinetics of enzymes in cold-stenothermal invertebrates
- Effects of low temperature on prooxidant processes and antioxidant defence systems in marine organisms
- PART III Exploitative adaptations
- PART IV Integrative approaches
- PART V Applied approaches
- Index
Physiological and evolutionary aspects of myoglobin expression in the haemoglobinless Antarctic icefishes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- PART I General concepts
- PART II Compensatory adaptations in cold ocean environments
- Adaptation to cold and depth: contrasts between polar and deep-sea animals
- Temperature and growth rates as modulators of the metabolic capacities of fish muscle
- Energetic aspects of cold adaptation: critical temperatures in metabolic, ionic and acid-base regulation?
- Physiological and evolutionary aspects of myoglobin expression in the haemoglobinless Antarctic icefishes
- Oxygen transport systems in extreme environments: multiplicity and structure-function relationship in haemoglobins of Antarctic fish
- Membrane lipid and protein adaptations in Antarctic fish
- Kinetics of enzymes in cold-stenothermal invertebrates
- Effects of low temperature on prooxidant processes and antioxidant defence systems in marine organisms
- PART III Exploitative adaptations
- PART IV Integrative approaches
- PART V Applied approaches
- Index
Summary
Fish fauna of the Southern Ocean present an unique combination of biological characteristics and evolutionary history compared with those from other marine systems. Two features figure prominently in setting these organisms apart from fishes of temperate zone and even polar boreal seas.
First, the level of endemism of Antarctic fishes is unparalleled in other ocean systems. Of the 250+ species of fish known to inhabit the Southern Ocean, the dominant group, in terms of both species numbers (>100) and abundance (50–90% of captures) are members of the perciform suborder Notothenioidei (Dewitt, 1971; Anderson, 1990; Eastman, 1993). With few exceptions, fishes of the six notothenioid families are indigenous to waters surrounding Antarctica where they have evolved during the last 25–40 My in isolation under conditions that are both thermally stable and severely cold. Within this monophyletic group are species displaying a wide diversity of ecologies and life histories, from sluggish demersal to active pelagic habits.
The second major feature that sets Antarctic notothenioid species apart from the ichthyofauna of other marine systems is their long geographical isolation in waters that are the most severely cold, thermally stable aquatic habitat on the planet. The best estimates are that thermal isolation of Antarctica began with the development of circumpolar currents in the late Oligocene and was followed shortly thereafter with the establishment of the Antarctic Convergence (about 20 million years ago) (Kennett, 1977, 1980). The demise of most non-notothenioid fishes and radiative expansion of this suborder in coastal Antarctica apparently began with the significant ocean cooling that predated these events (Anderson, 1990).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cold Ocean Physiology , pp. 121 - 142Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998