Extreme acid tolerance: Overcoming the challenges of life at low pH (2015-2017)

Low pH waters are toxic to most animals, yet some freshwater vertebrates have managed to colonise some of the lowest pH environments on Earth. This project will investigate tolerance of low pH freshwaters, focusing on the mechanisms that underpin acid tolerance, physiological plasticity, the interactions between low pH and other environmental variables (e.g. temperature), and the costs and/or trade-offs to living in such physiologically challenging environments. In our rapidly changing world, this study will provide an important fundamental understanding of the capacity of some organisms to flourish at environmental extremes and their ability to respond to increased variability both within and between environmental stressors.