Seasonality in UV-absorbing compounds of cyanobacterial mat communities from an intertidal mangrove flat

Abstract

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 16:37-44 (1998) - doi:10.3354/ame016037 Seasonality in UV-absorbing compounds of cyanobacterial mat communities from an intertidal mangrove flat Ulf Karsten1,*, Josef Maier2, Ferran Garcia-Pichel3 1Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen 12, D-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany 2Institute for Plant Biochemistry, University of Tübingen, Corrensstrasse 41, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany 3Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Celsiusstrasse 1, D-28359 Bremen, Germany *E-mail: ukarsten@awi-bremerhaven.de ABSTRACT: Biomass and the concentrations of the UV-absorbing compounds scytonemin, pterins and mycosporine-like amino acid compounds (MAAs) were determined in a seasonal study of a cyanobacterial mat growing on an intertidal mangrove sediment at Towra Point, Sydney, Australia. The community was dominated by the filamentous cyanobacteria Lyngbya cf. aestuarii and Microcoleus chthonoplastes. While the first occurred as a thin compact layer on top of the mat without any obvious indication of growth over the course of the study, the latter formed a layer underneath Lyngbya and showed an increase in the thickness of the layer after the summer period. The sheath pigment scytonemin was only formed by L. cf. aestuarii and represented at all sampling dates the quantitatively most important UV-absorbing compound, ranging from 140 to 1300 mg m-2. The areal scytonemin content seemed to follow the seasonally fluctuating solar intensity. In contrast, the areal contents of pterins and MAAs did not increase under elevated solar radiation conditions. The data indicate the importance and effectiveness of scytonemin deposition in the outer sheaths of L. cf. aestuarii as a sunscreen for the entire benthic community underneath. KEY WORDS: Cyanobacteria · Lyngbya cf. aestuarii · Microcoleus chthonoplastes · Mycosporine-like amino acid compounds · Pterins · Seasonality · Scytonemin · UV radiation · UV sunscreen Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 16, No. 1. Publication date: October 15, 1998 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 1998 Inter-Research.