Extreme acid tolerance: Overcoming the challenges of life at low pH (2015–2017)
Abstract:
Low pH waters are toxic to most animals, yet some freshwater vertebrates have managed to colonise some
of the lowest pH environments on Earth. This project will investigate tolerance of low pH freshwaters,
focusing on the mechanisms that underpin acid tolerance, physiological plasticity, the interactions between
low pH and other environmental variables (e.g. temperature), and the costs and/or trade-offs to living in such
physiologically challenging environments. In our rapidly changing world, this study will provide an important
fundamental understanding of the capacity of some organisms to flourish at environmental extremes and
their ability to respond to increased variability both within and between environmental stressors.