Abstract
Temperature determines life of organisms more than many other environmental factors. The cause of this temperature sensitivity lies in the fundamental fact that all organisms are built up by chemical compounds and that all processes of life are made by chemical reactions which follow the laws of thermodynamics. The temperature acts not only upon the rate of all chemical reactions according the Arrhenius equation, but also causes conformational transitions of proteins, phase transitions of lipids, changes in the structure of water, etc. (Alexandrov 1977).
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© 1984 Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg
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Hoffmann, K.H. (1984). Metabolic and Enzyme Adaptation to Temperature. In: Hoffmann, K.H. (eds) Environmental Physiology and Biochemistry of Insects. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70020-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70020-0_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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