Proceedings of the Information Symposium in the EEC Programme in Climatology held in Mytilene, Greece, April 15-18, 1984

The present volume contains selected papers of the International Symposium on Adaptations to Terrestrial Environment, held in Halki diki, Greece from Sept 26th to Oct 2nd, 1982. The meeting was designed to consider the means as weIl as the mechanisms whereby organisms adapt to their environment. The papers presented dealt with a large variety of species from insects up to and including mamrnals. What became apparent during the course of the meeting was the incredible variety of means that organisms use to survive in their particular environmental niche. The ploys utilized are almost as numerous as the number of species investi gated. This will become clearly apparent in the accompanying manu scripts which are published in this book. The Editors allowed the authors of the accepted papers great leeway in terms of the thorough ness of their contributions. Some of the presentations contain exclusively new findings, whereas others extensively review the existing literature. The Volume is divided into two parts: Invertebrates and Verte brates. The first provides information on adaptations of inverte brat es on environmental stresses (such as low er high temperatures and water deficits) from the physiological and/or biochemical points of view as weIl as behavioral responses resulting from their life strategies and interactions with other organisrns. In the second part papers selected deal with vertebrates. Adaptations to special environmental factors such as light and temperature are discussed as weIl as behavioral, physiological and biochemical solutions to problems imposed."

Our knowledge of the functional characteristics of the plants of mediterranean-cl imate regions has increased greatly in the past decade. In recent times the possibility of large-scale util ization of biomass for energy from these regions has been proposed. In order to assess the feasibil ity of these proposals we must consider the productive structure of these plant communities and how they vary through time and space. This symposium was an attempt to examine our recently acquired basic knowledge of the environmental I imitations on the productivity of Mediterranean plant communities in relation to the consequences of the possible util ization of these communities for energy and chemicals. Specifically in this book we examine the mechanisms by which plants of mediterranean-cl imate regions maintain their productive capacity under the prevail ing conditions of summer draught and winter cold. We consider the characteristics of leaves, their history, morphology and plasticity. Evergreen sclerophyll leaves are common to the dominant plants of all mediterranean-cl imate regions and thus they have significance in terms of enhancing carbon gain and water-use efficiency as well as ensuring survival under the prevail ing cl imatic conditions.

The present volume includes papers presented in the International Symposium on Adaptations to Terrestrial Environment, held in Halkidiki, Greece from September 26th to October 2nd, 1982, as well as some invited ones from well known scientists working in the same field. It seemed rather optimistic to deal just in the same volume with such a variety of organisms (micro organisms to higher plants) on the basis of the1r adaptive strategies for survival on land. It would appear as the entire ecology ought to be included. It was a challenge for us. We undertook this challenge hoping that the output would not be unsuccessful. The Editors allowed the authors of the accepted papers great leeway in terms of thoroughness of their contributions. The quality of the papers included is high while some of them had to be rewritten in order to include valuable comments developed during the Symposium discussions. We have tried to include many papers from Eastern Europe since generally, because of the language problem, they do not get widely known. The Editors wish to express their thankfulness to UNESCO for sponsoring the Symposium in the frame of Man and Biosphere Program; to all scientists who have contributed papers in this volume; and to Mrs. A. Karamanli-Vlahopoulou for her patient and skillful typing of part of the manuscript."

Our knowledge of the functional characteristics of the plants of mediterranean-cl imate regions has increased greatly in the past decade. In recent times the possibility of large-scale util ization of biomass for energy from these regions has been proposed. In order to assess the feasibil ity of these proposals we must consider the productive structure of these plant communities and how they vary through time and space. This symposium was an attempt to examine our recently acquired basic knowledge of the environmental I imitations on the productivity of Mediterranean plant communities in relation to the consequences of the possible util ization of these communities for energy and chemicals. Specifically in this book we examine the mechanisms by which plants of mediterranean-cl imate regions maintain their productive capacity under the prevail ing conditions of summer draught and winter cold. We consider the characteristics of leaves, their history, morphology and plasticity. Evergreen sclerophyll leaves are common to the dominant plants of all mediterranean-cl imate regions and thus they have significance in terms of enhancing carbon gain and water-use efficiency as well as ensuring survival under the prevail ing cl imatic conditions.