Long-Term UVR Effects Upon Phytoplankton Natural Communities of Patagonian Coastal Waters

HALAC, S. R.; V. E. VILLAFAÑE; R. J. GONÇALVES; E. W. HELBLING

Biomass and Remote Sensing of Biomass

Intech Open Access Publishers

Año: 2011; p. 229 - 248

(Extracted from Introduction section) Since the discovery of the ozone “hole” over the Antarctic continent and the concomitantincrease in ultraviolet B radiation (UV-B, 280-315 nm) vast literature has been producedabout the impact of these wavelengths on aquatic organisms. Nowadays it is widelyaccepted that ultraviolet radiation (UVR, 280-400 nm) acts as a stressor for both organismsand ecosystems, this being true not only for increased UVR but also for ‘normal’ levels (seereview by Helbling and Zagarese 2003 and references therein). Many studies about the UVRimpact on phytoplankton species and communities have reported negative effects ondifferent cellular targets (e.g., photosystem II, DNA, proteins) which may affect severalprocesses such as growth and photosynthesis (Vernet 2000; Villafañe et al. 2003). Inparticular, it has been found that UVR can significantly affect Photosynthesis versusIrradiance (P vs. E) parameters (Furgal and Smith 1997; Montecino et al. 2001; Villafañe et al.2004c) thus remote sensing calculations of primary production based on them might befrequently overestimated.