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Ecologists have always believed, at least to a certain extent, that physiological mechanisms serve to underpin ecological patterns. However, their importance has traditionally been at best underestimated and at worst ignored, with physiological variation being dismissed as either an irrelevance or as random noise/error. Spicer and Gaston make a convincing argument that the precise physiology does matter! In contrast to previous works which have attempted to integrate ecology and physiology, Physiological Diversity adopts a completely different and more controversial approach in tackling the physiology first before moving on to consider the implications for ecology. This is timely given the recent and considerable interest in the mechanisms underlying ecological patterns. Indeed, many of these mechanisms are physiological. This textbook provides a contemporary summary of physiological diversity as it occurs at different hierarchical levels (individual, population, species etc.), and the implications of such diversity for ecology and, by implication, evolution. It reviews what is known of physiological diversity and in doing so exposes the reader to all the key works in the field. It also portrays many of these studies in a completely new light, thereby serving as an agenda for, and impetus to, the future study of physiological variation. Physiological Diversity will be of relevance to senior undergraduates, postgraduates and professional researchers in the fields of ecology, ecological physiology, ecotoxicology, environmental biology and conservation. The book spans both terrestrial and marine systems.

The study of insects at low temperature is a comparatively new field. Only recently has insect cryobiology begun to mature, as research moves from a descriptive approach to a search for underlying mechanisms at diverse levels of organization ranging from the gene and cell to ecological and evolutionary relationships. Knowledge of insect responses to low temperature is crucial for understanding the biology of insects living in seasonally varying habitats as well as in polar regions. It is not possible to precisely define low temperature. In the tropics exposure to 10-15°C may induce chill coma or death, whereas some insects in temperate and polar regions remain active and indeed even able to fly at O°C or below. In contrast, for persons interested in cryopreservation, low temperature may mean storage in liquid nitrogen at - 196°C. In the last decade, interest in adaptations of invertebrates to low temperature has risen steadily. In part, this book had its origins in a symposium on this subject that was held at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in Louisville, Kentucky, USA in December, 1988. However, the emergence and growth of this area has also been strongly influenced by an informal group of investigators who met in a series of symposia held in Oslo, Norway in 1982, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1985 and in Cambridge, England in 1988. Another is scheduled for Binghamton, New York, USA (1990).

Low temperature is a major environmental constraint impacting the geographic distribution and seasonal activity patterns of insects. Written for academic researchers in environmental physiology and entomology, this book explores the physiological and molecular mechanisms that enable insects to cope with a cold environment and places these findings into an evolutionary and ecological context. An introductory chapter provides a primer on insect cold tolerance and subsequent chapters in the first section discuss the organismal, cellular and molecular responses that allow insects to survive in the cold despite their, at best, limited ability to regulate their own body temperature. The second section, highlighting the evolutionary and macrophysiological responses to low temperature, is especially relevant for understanding the impact of global climate change on insect systems. A final section translates the knowledge gained from the rest of the book into practical applications including cryopreservation and the augmentation of pest management strategies.

A collection of works by researchers who have studied the antifreeze proteins which enable organisms to avoid freezing under extreme conditions.