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

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

Metabolic fate of C-14-labelled chlorinated and non-chlorinated fatty acids in goldfish (Carassius auratus)

In order to study the metabolic fate of chlorinated fatty acids in fish, goldfish were fed either 9,10-dichlorostearic acid or oleic acid, chosen as the unchlorinated analogue, both radiolabelled at either the carboxyl (1st) or the terminal (18th) carbon of the fatty acid chain. By keeping the fish in hermetically closed aquaria, all the respired, assimilated and excreted radioactivity could be accounted for. Fish fed 9,10-dichlorostearic acid labelled in the terminal end respired radioactive CO2 to a much lower degree than fish fed the other test compounds. As a consequence, the radioactivity bound in lipids was higher in the group of fish fed dichlorostearic acid labelled in the terminal end. It is suggested that the chlorine atoms in the middle of the carbon chain obstruct the metabolic turn-over of 9,10-dichlorostearic acid, which may have an impact on the residence time of these compounds in the ecosystem

Theoretical habitat templets, species traits, and species richness: aquatic insects in the Upper Rhone River and its floodplain

International audienc