Experimental Studies on Pressure and Temperature Effects on Deep Dea Organisms

摘要

Recent research on high pressure adaptations point out that there is a definite metabolic change when organisms are subjected to increasing hydrostatic pressure. In the model depicting responses of shallow water crustaceans, a pronounced increase in locomotor activity is seen as a hyperactivity syndrome at pressures ranging between 50 and 80 atm. This stimulatory effect of pressure also induced an intermittent increase in metabolic activity. At pressures ranging from 100-150 atm these shallow water crustaceans show a very pronounced convulsive reaction and beyond 200 atm there is evidence of well defined inhibitory effects of pressure leading to paralysis of the experimental animals. This high pressure inhibition threshold level at 200 atm corresponds with earlier studies revealing inhibitory effects on nerve conduction, enzyme inactivation, and other biochemical changes involving protein structure. It is of interest to find out that low temperature acclimation appears to have an antagonizing effect and therefore, the hyperactivity syndrome as well as the convulsive reactions while under the influence of pressure becomes very less dramatic in crustaceans acclimated to low temperature for long periods (3 months or more). Another important finding resulting from this contract deals with the pressure responses of scavenging deep sea amphipods that occur at depths exceeding 2000 m.