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.

Inhaltsangabe1. The Potential for Survival of Organic Matter in Fluid Inclusions at Impact Sites,- 2. Geomicrobiology of Impact-Altered Rocks,- 3. Bacterial Spores Survive Simulated Meteorite Impact,- 4. Impact Generated Hydrothermal System,- 5. Comparison of Bosumtwi Impact Crater (Ghana) and Crater Lake Volcanic Caldera (Oregon, USA),- 6. Paleobiological Effects of the Late Cretaceous Wetumpka Marine Impact,- 7. The Sweet Aftermath: Environmental Changes and Biotic Restoration,- 8. Guembelitria irregularis Bloom at the K-T Boundary,- 9. Unravelling the Cretaceous-Paleogene (KT) Turnover, -10. Impact and Wildfires,- 11. Continental Vertebrate Extinctions,- 12. Geochemical Search for Impact Signatures,- 13. New Evidence for Impact from the Suvasvesi South Structure,- Kärdla Impact,- 14. Sediments and Impact Rocks filling the Boltysh Impact Crater,- 15. Stones in the Sky: from the Main Belt to Earth-Crossing Orbits