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The thick, white winter coat and the
thinner, browner summer coat of
the Arctic fox.
resource requirements of
non-motile organisms
Part II Conditions and Resources
3.2.7 Microorganisms in extreme environments
Microorganisms survive and grow in all the environments that are lived in or
tolerated by animals and plants, and they show the same range of strategies –
avoid, tolerate or specialize. Many microorganisms produce resting spores that
survive drought, high temperature or cold. There are also some that are capable
of growth and multiplication in conditions far outside the range of tolerance of
higher organisms: they inhabit some of the most extreme environments on Earth.
Temperatures maintained higher than 45°C are lethal to almost all plants and
animals, but thermophilic (‘temperature loving’) microbes grow at much higher
temperatures. Although similar in many ways to heat-intolerant microbes, the
enzymes of these thermophiles are stabilized by especially strong ionic bonds.
Microbial communities that not only tolerate but grow at low temperatures are
also known; these include photosynthetic algae, diatoms and bacteria that have
been found on Antarctic sea ice. Microbial specialists have also been identified
from other rare or peculiar environments: for example acidophiles, which thrive
in environments that are highly acidic. One of them, Thiobacillus ferroxidans, is
found in the waste from industrial metal-leaching processes and tolerates pH 1.0.
At the other end of the pH spectrum, the cyanobacterium, Plectonema nostocorum,
from soda lakes can grow at pH 13. As noted previously, these oddities may be
relicts from environments that prevailed much earlier in Earth’s history. Certainly,
they warn us against being too narrow-minded when we consider the kind of
organism we might look for on other planets.
3.3 Plant resources
Resources may be either biotic or abiotic components of the environment: they are
whatever an organism uses or consumes in its growth and maintenance, leaving less
available for other organisms. When a photosynthesizing leaf intercepts radiation,
it deprives some of the leaves or plants beneath it. When a caterpillar eats a leaf,
there is less leaf material available for other caterpillars. By their nature, resources
are critical for survival, growth and reproduction and also inherently a potential
source of conflict and competition between organisms.
If an organism can move about, it has the potential to search for its food.
Organisms that are fixed and ‘rooted’ in position cannot search. They must rely
on growing toward their resources (like a shoot or root) or catching resources
that move to them. The most obvious examples are green plants, which depend