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Fish are highly developed vertebrates which have succeeded in occupying virtually all aquatic environments on Earth. During their evolution in Antarctic marine waters, fish have adapted to cope with extreme conditions, such as water temperature below the freezing point of their body fluids, low and sporadic food levels and high pressure and oxygen saturation on Antarctic shelves.
These special adaptations make Antarctic fish a very important group relevant to the understanding of the evolution and functioning of physiological, biochemical and ecological adaptations from both a phylogenetic and ontogenetic point of view. The pattern of adaptation can tell us much about the process of evolution, since (unlike the situation in the shelf waters of other continents) the modern Antarctic fish fauna is dominated by a single highly endemic group (Notothenioidei), specialised to a large range of different living conditions.
Many fields of research on Antarctic fish have been opened and pursued in Europe during the last 20 years and European scientists are leading the way in disciplines such as karyotyping, ecology, population dynamics, biochemistry, physiology, etc. Most of this research has been carried out on a national basis. The ESF Network offers an opportunity to plan and co-ordinate a European project on the study of ecological constraints and strategies of evolutionary adaptations of cold-adapted Antarctic fish.
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