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Stress Ecology pp 131–159Cite as

Heavy Metals: Defense and Ecological Utilization

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Abstract

In its present form with its high diversity of aerobic pro- and eukaryotic organisms, life on earth only developed after the majority of heavy metals had been buried below the surface and after the majority of reduced iron had been oxidized to banded iron formations and, in turn, molecular oxygen could escape into the atmosphere (Schlesinger 1997; Krämer 2010). This separation of organisms from heavy metal deposits implies that the concurrence of both organisms and metals bears potential conflicts, forces organisms to handle such chemically stressful situations, and requires organisms to develop strategies to survive and evolve further and eventually to pass on the adverse challenge to competitors or predators.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To date, only for a very few plants, for instance the marine diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii, Cd has been identified as an essential nutrient (Lee et al. 1995).

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  1. Department of Biology Laboratory of Freshwater and Stress Ecology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Späthstraße 80/81, 12437, Berlin, Germany

    Christian E. W. Steinberg

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Steinberg, C.E.W. (2012). Heavy Metals: Defense and Ecological Utilization. In: Stress Ecology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2072-5_6

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