Biological adaptaions of alkalinity tolerance

Biological adaptaions of alkalinity tolerance

Biological adaptations to alkalinity tolerance.

Introduction
The earth is filled with a diversity of niche habitats, these area’s each comes with its own set of environmental conditions which is the norm for organisms that inhibit them. These conditions may be factors such as temperature, pressure, acidity, alkalinity, salinity, drought, nutrient depravation and other factors. These variables impact on the type of organisms that will be present in that environment at a time. The extent of deviation between what is considered normal to human’s viability and the conditions found in these environments make’s these environments ‘extreme’. Thus, very high temperatures, pressures, pH and other factors are considered extreme, and organisms found to inhibit, survive and proliferate in these areas are considered extremophles. There are various groups of extremophiles and they are called according to the extreme conditions that they endure, such as high temperature;thermophile, low pH;acidophile, high pH;alkaliphile, etc. The scientific question behind this ability resides on how have these organisms adapted so that life with this ‘extreme factor’ is possible. This writing focuses on a specific group of organisms that have the ability, not only to grow, but to thrive and maintain productive communities in conditions of low pH. These organisms are termed alkaliphiles, and they are organisms that typically grow and survive at very high pH and they are unique in nature. These are organisms are able to grow and survive at pH above 7. There is many debates about what pH deems an organisms an alkaliphile, but the usual notion is that an extreme alkaliphile grows optimally at pH>10 and moderate acidophiles grow optimally at pH 8-10. True alkaliphiles are those that require an alkaline environment for growth where as organisms that are able to survive these high pH values are deemed alkaline-tolerant. Environments of high pH are widespread on earth. The soda lakes...