Why do living things exist in extreme environments?

This shows that these creatures are suitable for surviving in such an environment.

Life can exist in a variety of environments, including some harsh ones. These living environments are simply impossible for other creatures to survive. For example, in environments such as high temperature, high acidity, high salt, high alkali or high pressure, it is believed that ordinary organisms cannot survive in these places without the help of protective measures. For such creatures, they can grow and reproduce normally.

1 Thermophilic group The German K. Stetter research team discovered a group of organisms that can live in high temperatures above 110°C near a submarine volcanic vent in Italy. They call it Methanopyrus. This type of organism grows best around 98°C and stops growing when the temperature drops to 84°C. Other creatures simply cannot tolerate such living conditions. Because when the temperature reaches 60 to 70°C, the macromolecules in ordinary living organisms are destroyed and even die. N. Pace, an American nucleic acid chemist, claimed that he had discovered biological clones growing at high temperatures above 130°C. He also proposed that 150°C may be the upper limit of life's heat resistance. Of course, his inference has not been confirmed and is merely a hypothesis.

2 Acidophiles These organisms are called Acidophiles, and they mostly live in volcanic areas or areas that are extremely rich in sulfur. They can oxidize sulfur into sulfuric acid, creating an extremely acidic environment with a pH value of 1 or even lower. Interestingly, many acidophilic organisms also like high temperatures. Steeter discovered a group of organisms that live in environments with high temperatures above 96°C and a pH value below 1. They were named Acidianus infernus.

3 Halophilic groups The salt content of the general ocean is about 3%, which is an excellent living environment for many organisms. However, in the Great Salt Lake, which has a salt content of 25%, very few organisms can survive. Because this condition causes water to leak out of biological cells, it also disrupts the normal electrolyte balance. However, microbiologist H. Jannasch discovered organisms that can survive in salt solutions with a salt content of up to 36%. He called them Halophiles. The 36% salt solution can no longer dissolve any more salt and is almost saturated. Another microbiologist, W. Stoeckenius, while observing the reproduction of halophilic organisms, discovered that they had special shapes, one of which was the most eye-catching. They are square in shape, and when they reproduce, they first extend in one direction, then split to form another square, and so on until they look like connected postage stamps. There are also groups of halophilic organisms that appear red in color. If you fly over their breeding area, the seawater salt evaporation pond, you can see the color change from dark green to dark red in the salt evaporation pond from a high altitude: In the early stages of evaporation, due to the lush algae in the pond, The color is dark green; then, as the water evaporates, the salt reaches saturation, all algae die, and the green color disappears; only halophilic organisms remain, and the color turns dark red.

4 Alkaliphilic groups Another group of organisms that live in salt lakes or salt ponds at the same time as the halophilic groups are very alkali-resistant. Someone tested the living environment of such organisms and found that the pH value of the solution reached above 11.5, almost reaching the alkalinity of ammonia, but they were able to grow and reproduce normally.

5 Piezophilic groups A. Yayanos, an American oceanographer, discovered that some organisms can only grow on the deepest ocean floor. One of their living conditions is huge pressure. In the laboratory, some of them can grow under pressures of 1317 225 to 1418 550 mpa. In other words, they can live on the ocean floor at a depth of 13 to 14 km. Surprisingly, some of them require a pressure of at least 3 0 3 9 7 5 mpa. If the pressure is lower than 303 975 mpa, they will stop growing. Therefore, some scientists believe that their life activities are crucial to the ocean. Because of their existence, the biological remains that fell to the ocean floor can participate in the recycling of ocean organic matter.