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Curling during desiccation protects the foliose lichen Lobaria pulmonaria against photoinhibition

  • Ecophysiology
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Abstract

This study aims to assess the photoprotective potential of desiccation-induced curling in the light-susceptible old forest lichen Lobaria pulmonaria by using chlorophyll fluorescence imaging. Naturally curled thalli showed less photoinhibition-induced limitations in primary processes of photosynthesis than artificially flattened specimens during exposures to 450 μmol m−2 s−1 in the laboratory after both 12- (medium dose treatment) and 62-h duration (high dose treatment). Thallus areas shaded by curled lobes during light exposure showed unchanged values of measured chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (F V/F M, ΦPS II), whereas non-shaded parts of curled thalli, as well as the mean for the entire flattened thalli, showed photoinhibitory limitation after light treatments. Furthermore, the chlorophyll fluorescence imaging showed that the typical small-scale reticulated ridges on the upper side of L. pulmonaria caused a spatial, small-scale reduction in damage due to minor shading. Severe dry-state photoinhibition readily occurred in flattened and light-treated L. pulmonaria, although the mechanisms for such damage in a desiccated and inactive stage are not well known. Natural curling is one strategy to reduce the chance for serious photoinhibition in desiccated L. pulmonaria thalli during high light exposures.

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Abbreviations

Chl:

Chlorophyll

HD:

High light dose

MD:

Medium light dose

PS II:

Photosystem II

ΦPS II :

Quantum yield of photochemical reactions in photosystem II

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the project No. 522/03/0754 provided by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Physiology and Anatomy, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, 61137, Brno, Czech Republic

    Miloš Barták & Hana Vráblíková

  2. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management (Urbygningen), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432, Ås, Norway

    Knut Asbjørn Solhaug & Yngvar Gauslaa

Authors
  1. Miloš Barták
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  2. Knut Asbjørn Solhaug
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  3. Hana Vráblíková
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  4. Yngvar Gauslaa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yngvar Gauslaa.

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Communicated by Otto Lange

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Barták, M., Solhaug, K.A., Vráblíková, H. et al. Curling during desiccation protects the foliose lichen Lobaria pulmonaria against photoinhibition. Oecologia 149, 553–560 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0476-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0476-2

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