What to Choose for Estimating Leaf Water Status-Spectral Reflectance or In vivo Chlorophyll Fluorescence?

In the context of global climate change and the increasing need to study plant response to drought, there is a demand for easily, rapidly, and remotely measurable parameters that sensitively reflect leaf water status. Parameters with this potential include those derived from leaf spectral reflectance (R) and chlorophyll fluorescence. As each of these methods probes completely different leaf characteristics, their sensitivity to water loss may differ in different plant species and/or under different circumstances, making it difficult to choose the most appropriate method for estimating water status in a given situation.

A mesophilic relative of common glacier algae, Ancylonema palustre sp. nov., provides insights into the induction of vacuolar pigments in zygnematophytes.

The green algae of the genus Ancylonema, which belong to the zygnematophytes, are prevalent colonizers of glaciers worldwide. They display a striking reddish-brown pigmentation in their natural environment, due to vacuolar compounds related to gallic acid. This pigmentation causes glacier darkening when these algae bloom, leading to increased melting rates.

A DUF3494 ice-binding protein with a root cap domain in a streptophyte glacier ice alga.

Ice-binding proteins (IBPs) of the DUF3494 type have been found in many ice-associated unicellular photoautotrophs, including chlorophytes, haptophytes, diatoms and a cyanobacterium. Unrelated IBPs have been found in many land plants (streptophytes). Here we looked for IBPs in two streptophyte algae that grow only on glaciers, a group in which IBPs have not previously been examined.

Novel insights in cryptic diversity of snow and glacier ice algae communities combining 18S rRNA gene and ITS2 amplicon sequencing.

Melting snow and glacier surfaces host microalgal blooms in polar and mountainous regions. The aim of this study was to determine the dominant taxa at the species level in the European Arctic and the Alps. A standardized protocol for amplicon metabarcoding using the 18S rRNA gene and ITS2 markers was developed.