Biological Processes Associated with Impact Events

The biological effects of asteroid and comet impacts have been widely viewed as primarily destructive. The role of an impactor in the K/T boundary extinctions has had a particularly important influence on thinking concerning the role of impacts in ecological and biological changes. th During the 10 and final workshop of the ESF IMPACT program during March 2003, we sought to investigate the wider aspects of the involvement of impact events in biological processes, including the beneficial role of these events from the prebiotic through to the ecosystem level. The ESF IMPACT programme (1998-2003) was an interdisciplinary effort that is aimed at understanding impact processes and their effects on the Earth environment, including environmental, geological and biological changes. The IMPACT programme has 15 member states and the activities of the programme range from workshops to short courses on topics such as impact stratigraphy, shock metamorphism, etc. The program has also awarded mobility grants and been involved in the development of teaching aids and numerous publications, including this one.

Presents in one volume a series of papers that cover the whole range of biological effects of impacts

The Potential for Survival of Organic Matter in Fluid Inclusions at Impact Sites.- Geomicrobiology of Impact-Altered Rocks.- Bacterial Spores Survive Simulated Meteorite Impact.- Impact-Generated Hydrothermal System - Constraints from the Large Paleoproterozoic Sudbury Crater, Canada.- Comparison of Bosumtwi Impact Crater (Ghana) and Crater Lake Volcanic Caldera (Oregon, USA): Implications for Biotic Recovery after Catastrophic Events.- Paleobiologic Effects of the Late Cretaceous Wetumpka Marine Impact, a 7.6-km-Diameter Impact Structure, Gulf Coastal Plain, USA.- The Sweet Aftermath: Environmental Changes and Biotic Restoration Following the Marine Mjølnir Impact (Volgian-Ryazanian Boundary, Barents Shelf).- Guembelitria irregularis Bloom at the K-T Boundary: Morphological Abnormalities Induced by Impact-related Extreme Environmental Stress?.- Unravelling the Cretaceous-Paleogene (KT) Turnover, Evidence from Flora, Fauna and Geology.- Impacts and Wildfires - An Analysis of the K-T Event.- Continental Vertebrate Extinctions at the Triassic-Jurassic and Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundaries: a Comparison.- Geochemical Search for Impact Signatures in Possible Impact-generated Units Associated with the Jurassic-Cretaceous Boundary in southern England and northern France.- New Evidence for Impact from the Suvasvesi South Structure, Central East Finland.- Kärdla Impact (Hiiumaa Island, Estonia) - Ejecta Blanket and Environmental Disturbances.- Sediments and Impact Rocks Filling the Boltysh Impact Crater.- Stones in the Sky: From the Main Belt to Earth-Crossing Orbits.