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The Environmental, Aviation and Space Physiology specialty section explores how the organism responds in both structure and function to challenges imposed by its prevalent, even harsh, surroundings and novel changes that deviate from its normal environment. Adaptation enables living organisms to confront external perturbations to adequately compensate and survive, but abrupt, or even extreme, changes can be maladaptive and lethal. As this section presents new and critical findings, it examines the nature of life itself, its evolutionary history, and its interrelationships to other organisms and its environment in a vastly changing world.
Of utmost importance to the survival and wellness of a species will be its response to its changing environment brought about by climate. The adaptability of a species is no longer guaranteed by its isolation in the jungle, in the desert, at high altitudes, or in a coastal reef system. This is particularly the case with human life. As a section we invite studies that explore in depth the specific impact of climate change on organismal physiology and new methodologies in monitoring and insights into solutions.
Another topic of interest is how the physiological mechanisms, from neural to metabolism, of organisms respond to changes in the intensity and direction of gravity. Of all the environmental parameters under which a species has been exposed in the course of its evolution only gravity has remained constant. Predation, vegetation, and terrestrial or aquatic habitation, for example, have changed, but the intensity and direction of gravity have not. An organism’s ability to detect gravity and to live under a gravitational load are critical for its survival.
Over 50 years before the advent of the space age, scientists in academic and military laboratories throughout the world were identifying the physiological and psycho-physiological mechanisms critical for piloting aircraft. The arrival of aviation offered a new, more complex test environment where man and machine interact in a rapidly changing environment. This environment often proved dangerous as pilots had to learn to control the aircraft under all circumstances and the advances in manufacturing and technology had to recognize the physiology of the pilot and the crew. Today we are even planning to fly to Mars in the up-coming decades and to build self-controlled ecological habitats on its surface. Not only will the human crews be confined to extremely isolated and hostile environments, but so too will the living organisms transported with them. We have just started to gain insights, through analog studies and extended stays on orbiting space stations, how such a scenario will influence the crew’s performance and well-being. The success and survivability of these endeavors will depend on our understanding of how life responds to the initial and long-term changes and adaptations within and across generations.
The specialty section will be problem oriented and not species specific. We encourage original articles that investigate the physiological and psycho-physiological interaction(s) of the organism, from cells to human, with its environment on land, in water, or in and beyond our atmosphere from both a fundamental or theoretical perspective as well as an applied formula. The section should serve as a scientific platform to rigorously analyze and discuss these issues from different perspectives with an integrated approach.
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PMCID: all published articles receive a PMCID
Environmental, Aviation and Space Physiology welcomes submissions of the following article types: Brief Research Report, Case Report, Data Report, Editorial, Hypothesis and Theory, Methods, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Perspective, Protocols, Review, Specialty Grand Challenge, Systematic Review and Technology Report.
All manuscripts must be submitted directly to the section Environmental, Aviation and Space Physiology, where they are peer-reviewed by the Associate and Review Editors of the specialty section.
Articles published in the section Environmental, Aviation and Space Physiology will benefit from the Frontiers impact and tiering system after online publication. Authors of published original research with the highest impact, as judged democratically by the readers, will be invited by the Chief Editor to write a Frontiers Focused Review - a tier-climbing article. This is referred to as "democratic tiering". The author selection is based on article impact analytics of original research published in all Frontiers specialty journals and sections. Focused Reviews are centered on the original discovery, place it into a broader context, and aim to address the wider community across all of Physiology.
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Avenue du Tribunal Fédéral 34
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Switzerland
Tel +41(0)21 510 17 40
Fax +41 (0)21 510 17 01
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