UV-B absorbing pigments in spores: biochemical responses to shade in a high-latitude birch forest and implications for sporopollenin-based proxies of past environmental change

Fraser, Wesley T.; Sephton, Mark A.; Watson, Jonathan S.; Self, Stephen; Lomax, Barry H.; James, David I.; Wellman, Charles H.; Callaghan, Terry V. and Beerling, David J. (2011). UV-B absorbing pigments in spores: biochemical responses to shade in a high-latitude birch forest and implications for sporopollenin-based proxies of past environmental change. Polar Research, 30 p. 8312.

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URL:	http://www.polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/artic...
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) Link:	http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.8312

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Abstract

Current attempts to develop a proxy for Earth’s surface ultraviolet-B (UV-B) flux focus on the organic chemistry of pollen and spores because their constituent biopolymer, sporopollenin, contains UV-B absorbing pigments whose relative abundance may respond to the ambient UV-B flux. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy provides a useful tool for rapidly determining the pigment content of spores. In this paper, we use FTIR to detect a chemical response of spore wall UV-B absorbing pigments that correspond with levels of shade beneath the canopy of a high-latitude Swedish birch forest. A 27% reduction in UV-B flux beneath the canopy leads to a significant (p<0.05) 7.3% reduction in concentration of UV-B absorbing compounds in sporopollenin. The field data from this natural flux gradient in UV-B further support our earlier work on sporopollenin-based proxies derived from sedimentary records and herbaria collections.

Item Type:

Journal Article

2011 W.T. Fraser et al.

ISSN:

1751-8369

External Project Funding Details:

Funded Project Name	Project ID	Funding Body
Not Set	Not Set	Natural and Environmental Research Council (NER/A/S/2002/00865)
Not Set	Not Set	Thermo Fisher Scientific
Not Set	Not Set	Enhanced Transnational Access To AbiskoScientific Research Station grant from the European Union (FP6 506004)
Not Set	Not Set	Leverhulme Trust Early Career fellowship (ECF/2006/0492)