Survival in Extreme Environments – Adaptation or Decompensation?, Volume I

  • 6,748

    Total Downloads

  • 36k

    Total Views and Downloads

Download PDFDownload EPUB

Submit your idea

Select the journal/section where you want your idea to be submitted:

Submit your manuscript summarySubmit your manuscript

About this Research Topic

Submission closed

Background

This Research Topic is part of the Survival in Extreme Environments – Adaptation or Decompensation? series:
Survival in Extreme Environments – Adaptation or Decompensation?, Volume II

Preclinical and Clinical New Documentation to Facilitate Adaptation and to Manage Critical Care Conditions

The history of human migration is also the history of successful biological interactions with new environments, where maintenance of body homeostasis is the fundamental property of this adaptation. Equilibrium of body homeostasis is the product of many regulatory physiologic mechanisms and seems to be the consequence of a natural resistance to change from a pre-existing optimal biological condition. Adaptation to a new equilibrium may take place within seconds, whereas chronic or functional adaptation is the product of processes, which may run for the whole life of an individual. Challenges to maintain biological equilibrium in a new environment, or more simply, to stay alive, include climate, ambient temperature, high altitude, and the immediate access to nature-given resources like food, water, and shelter. When exposed to extreme environments accidents may take place; the victims are suddenly no longer adapted and may decompensate due to hyper-/hypothermia, high-/low ambient pressures, and drowning. Professional workers like divers, extraction industry workers, anglers and hunters, seamen, or people seeking these elements during leisure or recreational activity, all depend on their ability to adapt, but share the same potential threat that their biological homeostasis will disrupt in case of an accident. The rescuers, on the other hand, may often meet other challenges, like the lack of practice or institutes without the proper care of patients with these relative rare conditions, or worse, attempting to treat such decompensated patients where the guidelines for treatment are not yet written.

To write these guidelines, we need new knowledge. However, due to obvious reasons, new knowledge of the complex pathophysiologic mechanisms evoked by these accidents can only be collected from experiments in preclinical models. Due to the very intrinsic integrative nature of the physiological mechanisms involved in adaptation – or not – to extreme environmental challenges, it is sometimes difficult to understand them in their entirety. Fortunately, new opportunities have arisen with the advent of biomolecular techniques, providing tools to better understand the interactions between the different levels of integration within the body, allowing us to see the bigger picture.

This Research Topic welcomes review papers and original research describing biologic interactions during exposure to extreme environments leading to adaptive or maladaptive responses, and eventual decompensation. New knowledge is needed to continuously create interventions, which may facilitate adaptation, prevent maladaptation, and to optimize life-saving procedures. It focuses on the following themes but is not limited to them:

• Physiologic consequences of hypothermia and rewarming on organ function.
• Effects of rewarming procedures to restore organ function.
• Biological underpinnings of adaptive and maladaptive responses to diving.
• Effects of treatment for diving related medical conditions.
• Pharmacological interventions to alleviate harmful effects of exposure to extreme environments.
• Countermeasures to mitigate and/ or support the physiological and physical challenges of extreme environmental exposures (e.g. nutritional strategies).
• Strategies to promote adaptations in extreme environmental conditions for a range of purposes, such as occupational, mountaineering or athletic performance.

Topic Editor Sanjoy Deb received financial support from Equinor. The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the Research Topic subject.

Keywords: Extreme Environments, Homeostasis, Critical Care, Adaptation, Decompensation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Topic editors

Frequently asked questions

  • Frontiers' Research Topics are collaborative hubs built around an emerging theme.Defined, managed, and led by renowned researchers, they bring communities together around a shared area of interest to stimulate collaboration and innovation.

    Unlike section journals, which serve established specialty communities, Research Topics are pioneer hubs, responding to the evolving scientific landscape and catering to new communities.

  • The goal of Frontiers' publishing program is to empower research communities to actively steer the course of scientific publishing. Our program was implemented as a three-part unit with fixed field journals, flexible specialty sections, and dynamically emerging Research Topics, connecting communities of different sizes and maturity.

    Research Topics originate from the scientific community. Many of our Research Topics are suggested by existing editorial board members who have identified critical challenges or areas of interest in their field.

  • As an editor, Research Topics will help you build your journal, as well as your community, around emerging, cutting-edge research. As research trailblazers, Research Topics attract high-quality submissions from leading experts all over the world.

    A thriving Research Topic can potentially evolve into a new specialty section if there is sustained interest and a growing community around it.

  • Each Research Topic must be approved by the specialty chief editor, and they fall under the editorial oversight of our editorial boards, supported by our in-house research integrity team. The same standards and rigorous peer review processes apply to articles published as part of a Research Topic as for any other article we publish.

      In 2023, 80% of the Research Topics we published were edited or co-edited by our editorial board members, who are already familiar with their journal's scope, ethos, and publishing model. All other topics are guest edited by leaders in their field, each vetted and formally approved by the specialty chief editor.

  • Publishing your article within a Research Topic with other related articles increases its discoverability and visibility, which can lead to more views, downloads, and citations. Research Topics grow dynamically as more published articles are added, causing frequent revisiting, and further visibility.

    As Research Topics are multidisciplinary, they are cross-listed in several fields and section journals – increasing your reach even more and giving you the chance to expand your network and collaborate with researchers in different fields, all focusing on expanding knowledge around the same important topic.

    Our larger Research Topics are also converted into ebooks and receive social media promotion from our digital marketing team.

     

  • Frontiers offers multiple article types, but it will depend on the field and section journals in which the Research Topic will be featured. The available article types for a Research Topic will appear in the drop-down menu during the submission process.

    Check available article types here 

  • Yes, we would love to hear your ideas for a topic. Most of our Research Topics are community-led and suggested by researchers in the field. Our in-house editorial team will contact you to talk about your idea and whether you’d like to edit the topic. If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. 

    Suggest your topic here 

  • A team of guest editors (called topic editors) lead their Research Topic. This editorial team oversees the entire process, from the initial topic proposal to calls for participation, the peer review, and final publications.

    The team may also include topic coordinators, who help the topic editors send calls for participation, liaise with topic editors on abstracts, and support contributing authors. In some cases, they can also be assigned as reviewers.

  • As a topic editor (TE), you will take the lead on all editorial decisions for the Research Topic, starting with defining its scope. This allows you to curate research around a topic that interests you, bring together different perspectives from leading researchers across different fields and shape the future of your field. 

     

    You will choose your team of co-editors, curate a list of potential authors, send calls for participation and oversee the peer review process, accepting or recommending rejection for each manuscript submitted.

  • As a topic editor, you're supported at every stage by our in-house team. You will be assigned a single point of contact to help you on both editorial and technical matters. Your topic is managed through our user-friendly online platform, and the peer review process is supported by our industry-first AI review assistant (AIRA).

  • If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. This provides you with valuable editorial experience, improving your ability to critically evaluate research articles and enhancing your understanding of the quality standards and requirements for scientific publishing, as well as the opportunity to discover new research in your field, and expand your professional network.

  • Yes, certificates can be issued on request. We are happy to provide a certificate for your contribution to editing a successful Research Topic.

  • Research Topics thrive on collaboration and their multi-disciplinary approach around emerging, cutting-edge themes, attract leading researchers from all over the world.

  • As a topic editor, you can set the timeline for your Research Topic, and we will work with you at your pace. Typically, Research Topics are online and open for submissions within a few weeks and remain open for participation for 6 – 12 months. Individual articles within a Research Topic are published as soon as they are ready.

    Find out more about our Research Topics

  • Our fee support program ensures that all articles that pass peer review, including those published in Research Topics, can benefit from open access – regardless of the author's field or funding situation.

    Authors and institutions with insufficient funding can apply for a discount on their publishing fees. A fee support application form is available on our website.

  • In line with our mission to promote healthy lives on a healthy planet, we do not provide printed materials. All our articles and ebooks are available under a CC-BY license, so you can share and print copies.

     

Impact

  • 36kTopic views
  • 26kArticle views
  • 6,748Article downloads
View impact