Oligotrophic

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Oligotrophic refers to any environment which offers little to sustain life. This term is usually used to describe bodies of water or soils with very low nutrient levels.

Greek etymology: Oligo : small, little, few; and trophe: nutrients, food.

Oligotrophic environments are of special interest for the alternative energy sources and survival strategies life could rely upon.

1 Examples of oligotrophic environments
2 References
3 See also
4 External Links

[edit] Examples of oligotrophic environments

An example of such a lake is Lake Vostok, a liquid freshwater lake which has been isolated from the world beneath 4 km of Antarctic ice for approximately 500,000 years.^[1]

An example of oligotrophic soils are those on white-sands, with soil pH lower than 5.0, on the Rio Negro basin on northern Amazonia that house very low-diversity, extremely fragile forests and savannahs drained by blackwater rivers. These owe this colour to the high concentration of tannins, humic acids and other organic compounds derived from the very slow decomposition of plant matter.^[2] Similar forests are found in the oligotrophic waters of the Patía River delta on the Pacific side of the Andes.^[3]

[edit] References

^ Priscu, JP, Adams, EE, Pearl, HW, Fritsen, CH, Dore, JE, Lisle, JT, Wolf, CF, Mikucki, JA. (2002) "Perennial Antarctic Lake Ice: A refuge for Cyanobacteria in an extreme environment" In Life in Ancient Ice (eds. Rogers, S and J Castello), Princeton Press;
^ German, Laura A. (December 2004) "Ecological praxis and blackwater ecosystems: a case study from the Brazilian Amazon" Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal 32(6): pp. 653-683;
^ Del Valle-Arango, Jorge Ignacio (August 2003) "Cantidad, calidad y nutrientes reciclados por la hojarasca fina en bosques pantanosos del Pacífico sur colombiano." Interciencia 28(8): pp. 443-452 (in Spanish);