Ultraviolet-B effects on photosystem II efficiency of natural phytoplankton communities from Antarctica

The impact of UVB on the Antarctic phytoplankton photosystem II repair cycle, involving the rapidly cycled D1 protein, was studied during summer 2002. On sunny and overcast days, phytoplankton (from 1-m depth) were exposed to natural light (+UVB) and Mylar-screened (−UVB) conditions. Half of the samples from each treatment were inoculated with lincomycin, an inhibitor of synthesis of chloroplast-encoded proteins including the D1 protein. Blocking D1 repair caused significant Fv/Fm depressions on sunny days but had not effect on the overcast day. Most of the Fv/Fm depression was caused by PAR and UVA with a non-significant contribution from UVB. In the presence of D1 repair, suppressing UVB had no effect on Fv/Fm when the samples originated from a weakly stratified water column with no defined upper mixed layer (UML) while it alleviated Fv/Fm depression when the phytoplankton samples originated from within an UML deeper than the depth of UVB penetration. These results suggest that UVB had more effect on the D1 repair process than on the damage process itself but that phytoplankton sensitivity to surface UVB exposure was influenced by their previous light history, partly determined by the vertical structure of the water column.