Introduction
The overall aim of the larger project I'm working on as an intern at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center is in estimating the impact of ozone destruction on ocean ecosystems. We are collaborating with a group at NASA who is investigating the probability and severity of cosmic events that could have temporarily destroyed parts of our ozone layer in the past (or future). The resulting increase in UV could have caused major changes in Earth's ecosystems, depending on the extent of the ozone destruction!
My role in this project investigating the impact on the oceans, is looking at UV damage of the tiny plant-like species,
Prochlorococcus (picture below), that does about 30-80 percent of primary production in the open ocean. Looking at kinetics of UV damage of dominant open ocean 'plant-like' phytoplankton at the base of the food web can help us figure out what mechanisms are involved in photoprotection for this species and how good they are at protecting the species.
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| Prochlorococcus, a picophytoplankton species (translation = tiny plant-like drifting thing). |
Methods
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| Xenon arc lamp (left) irradiates sample (right) |
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| PAM fluorometer and cuvette with phytoplankton culture |
In order to do this I am using a Xenon Arc Lamp that does a really good job of sending out lots of UV radiation (top image), and using a fluorometer to measure changes in "healthiness" of phytoplankton (middle image). Bottom image is of phytoplankton cultures in shaded 'medium light' conditions.
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Prochlorococcus cultures
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