Effects of ultraviolet radiation B (UV-B) on photosynthesis of natural phytoplankton assemblages in a marine bay in Southern China

Abstract

Solar ultraviolet radiation B (UVB) is known to have inhibitive effects on phytoplankton photosynthesis. UVB light decreases rapidly with increasing depth in the water column and exerts different degrees of UVB inhibitive effects on phytoplankton photosynthesis. In this study, the objectives were to quantify effects of UVB on phytoplankton photosynthesis and quantum yield, and to examine UVB effects on phytoplankton photosynthesis when light varies. The in-situ experiments were conducted in Da Ya Bay, which is a semi-enclosed area in the subtropical South China. The results showed a significant reduction of photosynthetic rates and quantum yield in the presence of UVB. Maximum photosynthetic rates (P-max) and maximum quantum yield (Phi(max)) were 11%-22% and 17%-49% less under solar radiation with UVB than without UVB. A simplified model was developed to describe the UVB biologically effective fluence rate (E*(inh)) as an exponential decay function of depth. Light-shift experiments, in which water samples from the surface and at depth of 4 m were divided into several subsamples, and each subsamples were then incubated at different depths with and without UVB in the water column, showed that phytoplankton from the deeper water (4 m) had more inhibitive rates by UVB than that from the surface when exposed to the same light condition.