When light intensities become supersaturating for photosynthesis, phytoplankton must be able to protect the photosynthetic machinery from potential damage by excess energy absorption. One of the most important photoprotective mechanisms involves the nonradiative dissipation of excess light energy by the interconversion of the carotenoid pigments of the so-called xanthophyll cycle. Very little is known about how the xanthophyll cycle of natural communities of phytoplankton responds to high light conditions and the relationship of this photoprotective mechanism to the surrounding physical environment. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the functioning, activation and relationship to the physical environment of the xanthophyll cycle in phytoplankton from the Antarctic ecosystem and the Southern Ocean. Experiments in Antarctica were conducted in austral spring under various natural and artificial light regimes including the use of a newly developed light mixing simulator (LMS). Photoprotective carotenoid pigment concentrations were determined using a carotenoid specific protocol for High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The photoprotective xanthophyll cycle was not active in Antarctic sea ice algae under the low light conditions under the annual sea ice. When sea ice algae are exposed to high irradiance, there was an initial rapid deepoxidation of the xanthophyll pigment diadinoxanthin (DD) to diatoxanthin (DT). With on-going irradiance exposure, slower deepoxidation of DD continued. The recovery of DD in the dark or under low light was found to be significantly faster than in temperate algal communities, and is likely a particular adaptation to the unique light environment in Antarctica. The temporal accumulation of pigments of the violaxanthin (VX) xanthophyll cycle was observed for the first time in a natural phytoplankton population. It is hypothesized that the VX cycle may function as a pathway to maintain the pool of DD cycle pigments rather than as a separate photoprotective pathway as observed in higher plants. The high irradiances of ultraviolet - B (290 - 320 nm) radiation (UVB) as a result of stratospheric ozone depletion over Antarctica in spring was found to significantly impact on the DD cycle. Exposure to high levels of both ultraviolet-A (320- 400 nm) radiation (UVA) and UVB reduced the photoprotective xanthophyll pigment pool with the greatest reduction occurring after exposure to high levels of UVB. The reduction in the amount of cellular DD after exposure to high levels of UVB was greater than can be explained by deepoxidation activity, which implies that high UVB exposure can lead to a loss of DD from the community. The first-order kinetic rates of the DD cycle were found to be similar to other studies and did not vary with light intensity. Simulations under natural light using the LMS demonstrated that the response of the DD cycle to static in situ incubations and when subject to vertical mixing was not similar, and that static incubations overestimate DD-cycle activity Over the long term, algae in a simulated vertically mixed environment were able to increase the pool of xanthophyll pigments compared to static conditions where the pool remained the same or decreased. Oceanographic observations from the subantarctic waters south-east of New Zealand in austral autumn provided the physical background for new insights into the xanthophyll cycle of Southern Ocean phytoplankton. The circulation flow and water masses between the Bounty Plateau and Bollons Seamount was resolved and shown to differ from numerical models. Relatively little of the warm and salty Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW) from the Tasman Sea is carried in the flow of the Subantarctic Front (SAF). The spatial distribution of photoprotective xanthophyll pigments showed higher than expected concentrations in the surface mixed layer of the region. The high concentration of photoprotective pigments is considered to be a consequence of the low iron concentrations in southern waters and the highly variable light and vertical mixing environment. The high cellular concentrations of photoprotective pigments constrains photosynthetic activity implying that the photoprotective pigments may play a more significant role in controlling phytoplankton production in the Southern Ocean than previously thought. Analysis of the xanthophyll pigments and physical oceanography with a Self-Organising map (SOM) Artificial Neural Network (ANN) showed that the photophysiological index DT/ (DD+DT) can be used to resolve a change in water type properties. A simple numerical model was developed which can be used to provide a quantitative index of the relative magnitudes of vertical mixing and phytoplankton photoprotection in the water column. This approach may be useful to identify the effects of physical changes in the surface mixed layer of the Southern Ocean as predicted by climate change modelling.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/197589 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Griffith, Gary P, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of Marine Science |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Gary P Griffith |
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