Laboratory of Physiological Ecology

HEAD Alexey V. ZHIRMUNSKY, Academician of RAS.

STAFF numbers 13 , including 1 Academician, 6 Cand. Biol.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: Autoecological investigation of adaptation in invertebrates, analysis of developmental cycles and organization of natural systems.

Mechanisms of adaptation of invertebrate species to temperature and salinity are studied on the molecular, cellular and organismic levels. Comparative study of thermal adaptations in more than 150 invertebrate species has made it possible to develop a concept suggesting that zonation in distribution of bottom animals is determined by hereditary differences in the structure of cellular proteins.

An analysis of allometric relationships in the development of various natural systems has revealed a relation between successive critical values of the argument, at which the system leaps to a new state. The law has been formulated according to which the hierarchy of related processes in natural systems has some critical e levels with successive values relating as å^å, i.e., 15.15... In particular, this concept was applied to description of the species composition of bottom communities (Acad. A.V.Zhirmunsky and Prof. V.I. Kuzmin, Moscow).

Phases have been established in alteration of resistance of invertebrate embryos and adults to environmental salinity and temperature. Contrary to the generally accepted concept on a low environmental resistance of invertebrate embryos and larvae to different effects in comparison to adult organisms, stages of high resistance and critical phases have been revealed that are characterized by enhanced sensitivity coinciding in time with morphophysiological reconstructions (Dr. L.M.Yaroslavtseva and A.M.Makarycheva).

Phone: 31-09-42; 31-14-23; 31-28-33; 31-04-64