A project “Comparative Studies of Biochemical Mechanisms of Stress-Adaptation in Some Populations of Gammarus lacustris Inhabiting Different Environments” was discussed at the workshop on April 24. The work supported by RFBR grant is carried out by Laboratory of Problems of Biosystem Adaptation (SRI of Biology at ISU, Irkutsk) and Laboratory of Ecosystem Biophysics (Institute of Biophysics SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk). Specialists of these two laboratories have close cooperation with research educational centers “Baikal” and “Yenisey” at Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk Universities. The project was represented by Dr. Zhanna Shatilina, Irkutsk, and a researcher Michael Gubanov, Krasnoyarsk.

It is known that organisms during their life cycle have to encounter stress changes in the environment facing an alternative – to die or disappear as a species. The aim of this joint research which started about a year ago was to study peculiarities of mechanisms of stress-adaptation in aquatic organisms, as well as to find a possible relationship between ecological characteristics of species and conditions of the environment. Representatives of some populations of the common species-cosmopolitan Gammarus lacustris were used as an object of studies. Within the framework of the project, Gammarus populations from Pribaikalien lakes and Lakes Shira and Shunet (Republic of Khakasiya) are examined and compared. Effects of such stress factors as temperature, hypoxia, hydrogen sulphide and toxic stress are also studied. At this stage of the project researchers obtain samples, as well as analyze them. In the nearest future, a third partner, German Christian Albrecht University (Kiel), is planning to joint this project.