gady-i-płazy: Desert

Evidence: 66 • authority: 72

Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic reduction entered by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It is most commonly used to pass through winter months – called overwintering. Although traditionally reserved for "deep" hibernators such as rodents, the term has been redefined to include animals such as bears and is now applied based on active metabolic suppression rather than any absolute decline in body temperature. Many experts believe that the processes of daily torpor and hibernation form a continuum and use similar mechanisms. The equivalent during the s…

Evidence: 52 • authority: 72

Aestivation (Latin: aestas (summer); also estivation in American English) is a state of animal or plant dormancy, similar to hibernation, although taking place in the summer rather than the winter. Aestivation is characterized by inactivity and a lowered metabolic rate, that is entered in response to high temperatures and arid conditions. It takes place during times of heat and dryness, which are often the summer months. Invertebrate and vertebrate animals enter an aestivating state to avoid damage from high temperatures and the risk of desiccation. Both terrestrial and aquatic animals undergo aestivation, as do many plants, such as Cyclamen, which have foliage and flowers in the winter, an…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 92

Surviving through a dry spell: microbial responses to drying and rewetting.. The issues of how microorganisms survive very long periods of desiccation and how they react during both drying and rehydration phases have long been topics of interest in a range of relevant fields, including desert ecosystem microbiomics, food storage, ancient microbe studies, and even astrobiology. The recently published study by Carini et al., who used a combination of transcriptomics and metabolomics to investigate steady-state gene expression and cellular metabolite profiles at different states of bacterial cellular desiccation, during both drying and rewetting phases, adds some valuable insights into how mem…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, and to the Sinaloan thornscrub of northwestern Mexico. G. agassizii is distributed in western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah. The specific name agassizii is in honor of Swiss-American zoologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. The desert tortoise is the official state reptile in California and Nevada. The desert tortoise lives 70 to 80 years on average; it grows slowly and generally has a low reproductive rate. It spends most of its time in burrows…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Dormancy is a period in an organism's life cycle when growth, development, and (in animals) physical activity are temporarily stopped. This minimizes metabolic activity and therefore helps an organism to conserve energy. Dormancy tends to be closely associated with environmental conditions. Organisms can synchronize entry to a dormant phase with their environment through predictive or consequential means. Predictive dormancy occurs when an organism enters a dormant phase before the onset of adverse conditions. For example, photoperiod and decreasing temperature are used by many plants to predict the onset of winter. Consequential dormancy occurs when organisms enter a dormant phase after ad…

Evidence: 38 • authority: 92

Vulnerable microbial communities in Atacama-Altiplano wetlands: modern analogs of ancient ecosystems with implications for sustainability and conservation.. The Altiplano-Puna plateau lies at ∼4000 m above sea level in the volcanic Andes cordillera. Together with the adjacent Atacama Desert, it forms one of the most hyperarid regions on the planet. Wetlands are rare, influenced by hydrothermalism and, due to high evaporation rates, dominated by saline lakes and ephemeral ponds associated with salt flats (collectively called salares ). Long thought to be lifeless, these environments host microbial ecosystems adapted to extreme conditions in terms of temperature, pH, salinity, ultraviolet rad…

Evidence: 38 • authority: 72

Evidence: — • authority: 65