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Ultraviolet-B effects on photosystem II efficiency of natural phytoplankton communities from Antarctica

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Abstract

The impact of UVB on the Antarctic phytoplankton photosystem II repair cycle, involving the rapidly cycled D1 protein, was studied during summer 2002. On sunny and overcast days, phytoplankton (from 1-m depth) were exposed to natural light (+UVB) and Mylar-screened (−UVB) conditions. Half of the samples from each treatment were inoculated with lincomycin, an inhibitor of synthesis of chloroplast-encoded proteins including the D1 protein. Blocking D1 repair caused significant Fv/Fm depressions on sunny days but had not effect on the overcast day. Most of the Fv/Fm depression was caused by PAR and UVA with a non-significant contribution from UVB. In the presence of D1 repair, suppressing UVB had no effect on Fv/Fm when the samples originated from a weakly stratified water column with no defined upper mixed layer (UML) while it alleviated Fv/Fm depression when the phytoplankton samples originated from within an UML deeper than the depth of UVB penetration. These results suggest that UVB had more effect on the D1 repair process than on the damage process itself but that phytoplankton sensitivity to surface UVB exposure was influenced by their previous light history, partly determined by the vertical structure of the water column.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the InterAmerican Institute (IAI) for Global Change Research and from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)—Collaborative Research Opportunities and NSERC Discovery grants to Serge Demers, S.R. and D.C.—and Instituto Antártico Argentino (IAA) grant IAA-38 to G.F. We thank the support of the IAA technical team (Oscar González, Leonardo Cantoni, Alejandro Ulrich, Nestor Villacorta and R. De Ricota), the personnel from the Argentinean Navy for logistic support at Melchior Station, Silvia Rodríguez for phytoplankton enumeration and Agrisera AB (http://www.agrisera.se) for providing the Global Antibody used to detect PsbA protein pools. This work is a partial fulfilment of J.N.B.’s PhD thesis at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, Québec, Canada.

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  1. Institut des Sciences de la Mer de Rimouski (ISMER), Université du Québec à Rimouski, 310, Allée des Ursulines, C.P. 3300, Rimouski, QC, Canada, G5L 3A1

    Josée Nina Bouchard, Suzanne Roy, Gustavo Ferreyra & Antonio Curtosi

  2. Department of Biology and Coastal Wetlands Institute, Mount Allison University, 63B York St., Sackville, NB, Canada, E4L 1G7

    Douglas A. Campbell

  3. Instituto Antártico Argentino, Cerrito 1248, Buenos Aires, 1010, Argentina

    Gustavo Ferreyra & Antonio Curtosi

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  1. Josée Nina Bouchard
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Correspondence to Suzanne Roy.

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Bouchard, J.N., Roy, S., Ferreyra, G. et al. Ultraviolet-B effects on photosystem II efficiency of natural phytoplankton communities from Antarctica. Polar Biol 28, 607–618 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0727-4

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