From the Atacama to Makalu: A Journey to Extreme Environments on Earth and Beyond [Paperback]

R. T. Arrieta (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0965596753 | ISBN-13: 978-0965596756 | Publication Date: December 1997

Life on Mars would face challenges that are not so different from those faced by organisms in Earth's extreme environments. This book delves into the limits faced by all life by examining the adaptations necessary to survive extreme environments. It proceeds from absolute deserts like the Atacama to the tops of giant mountains like Makalu, exploring the uniting principles behind the limitations to life. The book then applies these principles to the possibility of life on Mars. For ease of reference, it contains species lists and place-name lists with coordinates, as well as a glossary and an extensive reference list.

Editorial Reviews

Review

On Earth, life is present even in the harshest environments. Many times life in such places is not cute or cuddly, but often it is strange, and always tough. From The Atacama To Makalu explores such places in detail, delving into the adaptations that allow plants, animals, and microbes to survive on Earth's most inhospitable places. From The Atacama To Makalu proceeds from absolute deserts such as Chile's Atacama, to a wide variety of other extreme environments -- some obvious, some not so obvious. Such places range from ephemeral rock pool in Africa's Great Rift Valley, to over 20,000 feet up on the slopes of the world's fifth highest mountain, Makalu. From The Atacama To Makalu then makes the point that such places are our best window into the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It does this by imaginatively extrapolating what has been learned on Earth to the possibility of life on Mars. From The Atacama To Makalu provides a fresh and informative view of life on our planet. Highly recommended! -- Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

We are committed to provide the public with accessible publications in exobiology as well as other emerging scientific disciplines. We are pleased to launch this endeavor with this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Coqui Pr (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965596753
• ISBN-13: 978-0965596756
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,974,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Misguidance!, May 22, 2008

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Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: From the Atacama to Makalu: A Journey to Extreme Environments on Earth and Beyond (Paperback)

I found this fascinating book by misguidance. I searched dear amazon for books about hiking in Chile, with practical intentions in the form of a travel adventure, and this book popped up, with no description and no reviews. The Atacama is the desert region of Chile, the area of all the world with the lowest annual rainfall. Naturally, I ordered it.

Imagine my surprise! It's not a trail guide, not a travel book at all. Instead it's an inventory of plants and other life forms that have adapted to extreme environments - deserts yes, but also glacial fields, acid bogs, salt flats, anaerobic soils and seas, heavy-metal-laden soils, deep aquifers, the highest Himalayas, and Los Angeles.

Actually, I added the last extreme environment myself.

The book discusses in scientific depth, but with compassion for the non-scientist, the limits each environment imposes, and the kinds of adaptations organisms have had to evolve in order to thrive where nothing else could. Some of the most fantastically strange adaptations have indeed occurred in the Atacama of Chile, where "puyas" have diversified to dominate the landscape. The whole annual cycle of uninhabitability of the vernal pools of California is presented - an uninhabitability that blazes into Kodakchrome flowers every spring, and looks utterly dead when most of the life is stirring. Even the temperate forests of northeastern North America - what's left of them - present extreme challenges to the survival of life during the cycle of seasons, yet life has made adaptations that we blind-worm Homo sapiens can walk through in romantic rapture without comprehending.

What a fascinating book! I've never made a more rewarding mistake in shopping in my life.