Timing of deployment does not affect the biodiversity outcomes of ecological enhancement of coastal flood defences in northern Europe

Timing of installation is an important factor when planning the deployment of ecological enhancements to intertidal coastal and marine infrastructure. Such nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly used worldwide, so understanding whether the timing of deployment affects colonisation success is crucial to enhance their success and identify any ecological sensitivities that must be taken into consideration during construction. To date, none of the previous marine eco-engineering studies globally have looked specifically at timing. An unexpected COVID19 interruption in retrofitting Ecotiles designed to improve urban marine biodiversity provided a unique window of opportunity to address this research gap. We examined if time of deployment affects the early colonisation (within 18 months) success of eco-engineering enhancements. Thirty concrete tiles (Ecotiles) cast with a novel multi-scale, multi-species textured formliner were deployed on rock armour in three sites along the coast in Edinburgh, Scotland, at two different time periods (early March and late May 2020). After two settlement seasons, the colonisation success of 85% of the studied species did not vary between the times of deployment. Early colonisation success of intertidal species equalised within two settlement seasons of deployment, along with an overall increase in species richness. Crucially, these results also show that summer construction periods designed to reduce impacts on overwintering birds, do not adversely impact intertidal species during their peak (spring-summer) recruitment period in northern Europe. This novel result provides further support for widespread use of eco-engineering to enhance large coastal infrastructure projects and achieve ecological goals in northern Europe. More widely, this work contributes to the understanding of the impact of deployment timing on the success of similar NbS worldwide

Interaction of Temperature and Light in the Development of Freezing Tolerance in Plants

Abstract Freezing tolerance is the result of a wide range of physical and biochemical processes, such as the induction of antifreeze proteins, changes in membrane composition, the accumulation of osmoprotectants, and changes in the redox status, which allow plants to function at low temperatures. Even in frost-tolerant species, a certain period of growth at low but nonfreezing temperatures, known as frost or cold hardening, is required for the development of a high level of frost hardiness. It has long been known that frost hardening at low temperature under low light intensity is much less effective than under normal light conditions; it has also been shown that elevated light intensity at normal temperatures may partly replace the cold-hardening period. Earlier results indicated that cold acclimation reflects a response to a chloroplastic redox signal while the effects of excitation pressure extend beyond photosynthetic acclimation, influencing plant morphology and the expression of certain nuclear genes involved in cold acclimation. Recent results have shown that not only are parameters closely linked to the photosynthetic electron transport processes affected by light during hardening at low temperature, but light may also have an influence on the expression level of several other cold-related genes; several cold-acclimation processes can function efficiently only in the presence of light. The present review provides an overview of mechanisms that may explain how light improves the freezing tolerance of plants during the cold-hardening period

Cross-tolerance to abiotic stresses in halophytes: Application for phytoremediation of organic pollutants

International audienceHalopytes are plants able to tolerate high salt concentrations but no clear definition was retained for them. In literature, there are more studies that showed salt-enhanced tolerance to other abiotic stresses compared to investigations that found enhanced salt tolerance by other abiotic stresses in halophytes. The phenomenon by which a plant resistance to a stress induces resistance to another is referred to as cross-tolerance. In this work, we reviewed cross-tolerance in halophytes at the physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels. A special attention was accorded to the cross-tolerance between salinity and organic pollutants that could allow halophytes a higher potential of xenobiotic phytoremediation in comparison with glycophytes

Phosphoproteomic Analysis Reveals that Dehydrins ERD10 and ERD14 are Phosphorylated by SNF1-related Protein Kinase 2.10 in Response to Osmotic Stress

SNF1-related protein kinases 2 (SnRK2s) regulate the plant responses to abiotic stresses, especially water deficits. They are activated in plants subjected to osmotic stress, and some of them are additionally activated in response to enhanced concentrations of abscisic acid (ABA) in plant cells. The SnRK2s that are activated in response to ABA are key elements of ABA signaling that regulate plant acclimation to environmental stresses and ABA-dependent development. Much less is known about the SnRK2s that are not activated by ABA, albeit several studies have shown that these kinases are also involved in response to osmotic stress. Here, we show that one of the Arabidopsis thaliana ABA-non-activated SnRK2s, SnRK2.10, regulates not only the response to salinity but also the plant sensitivity to dehydration. Several potential SnRK2.10 targets phosphorylated in response to stress were identified by a phosphoproteomic approach, including the dehydrins ERD10 and ERD14. Their phosphorylation by SnRK2.10 was confirmed in vitro. Our data suggest that the phosphorylation of ERD14 within the S-segment is involved in the regulation of dehydrin subcellular localization in response to stress