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Passive Restoration Of Vegetation And Biological Soil Crusts Following 80 Years Of Exclusion From Grazing Across The Great Basin, Lea A. Condon, Nicole Pietrasiak, Roger Rosentreter, David A. Pyke

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Restoration targets for biological soil crusts are largely unknown. We surveyed seven 80‐year‐old grazing exclosures across northern Nevada for biocrusts to quantify reference conditions at relatively undisturbed sites. Exclosures were associated with the following plant communities: Wyoming big sagebrush, black sagebrush, and areas co‐dominated by winterfat and Wyoming big sagebrush. Cover of biocrusts and shrubs were generally higher than other plant groups at these sites, regardless of being inside or outside of the exclosures, suggesting these groups make up most of the native flora across the region. Important in forming soil structure, cyanobacteria of the order Oscillatoriales were less abundant …

The Complicated And Confusing Ecology Of Microcystis Blooms, Steven W. Wilhelm, George S. Bullerjahn, R Michael Mckay

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Blooms of the toxin-producing cyanobacterium are increasing globally, leading to the loss of ecosystem services, threats to human health, as well as the deaths of pets and husbandry animals. While nutrient availability is a well-known driver of algal biomass, the factors controlling "who" is present in fresh waters are more complicated. possesses multiple strategies to adapt to temperature, light, changes in nutrient chemistry, herbivory, and parasitism that provide a selective advantage over its competitors. Moreover, its ability to alter ecosystem pH provides it a further advantage that helps exclude many of its planktonic competitors. While decades of nutrient monitoring have …

Bloom Announcement: An Early Autumn Cyanobacterial Bloom Co-Dominated By Aphanizomenon Flos-Aquae And Planktothrix Agardhii In An Agriculturally-Influenced Great Lakes Tributary (Thames River, Ontario, Canada), R. Michael Mckay, Thijs Frenken, Ngan Diep, William R. Cody, Sophie Crevecoeur, Alice Dove, Kenneth G. Drouillard, Xavier Ortiz, Jason Wintermute, Arthur Zastepa

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

No abstract provided.

The Complicated And Confusing Ecology Of Microcystis Blooms, Steven W. Wilhelm, George S. Bullerjahn, R. Michael L. Mckay

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

Blooms of the toxin-producing cyanobacterium Microcystis are increasing globally, leading to the loss of ecosystem services, threats to human health, as well as the deaths of pets and husbandry animals. While nutrient availability is a well-known driver of algal biomass, the factors controlling “who” is present in fresh waters are more complicated. Microcystis possesses multiple strategies to adapt to temperature, light, changes in nutrient chemistry, herbivory, and parasitism that provide a selective advantage over its competitors. Moreover, its ability to alter ecosystem pH provides it a further advantage that helps exclude many of its planktonic competitors. While decades of nutrient …

Cpet Is The Phycoerythrobilin Lyase For Cys-165 On Beta-Phycoerythrin From Fremyella Diplosiphon And The Chaperone-Like Protein Cpez Greatly Improves Its Activity., Wendy M. Schluchter, A. A. Nguyen, K. L. Joseph, A. N. Bussell, S. Pokhrel, A. J. Karty, M. C. Kronfel, D. M. Kehoe

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Bilin lyases are enzymes which ligate linear tetrapyrrole chromophores to specific cysteine residues on light harvesting proteins present in cyanobacteria and red algae. The lyases responsible for chromophorylating the light harvesting protein phycoerythrin (PE) have not been fully characterized. In this study, we explore the role of CpeT, a putative bilin lyase, in the biosynthesis of PE in the cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon. Recombinant protein studies show that CpeT alone can bind phycoerythrobilin (PEB), but CpeZ, a chaperone-like protein, is needed in order to correctly and efficiently attach PEB to the beta-subunit of PE. MS analyses of the recombinant beta-subunit of …

Two New Oculatella (Oculatellaceae, Cyanobacteria) Species In Soil Crusts From Tropical Semi–Arid Uplands Of México, Itzel Becerra–Absalón, Jeffrey R. Johansen, Karina Osorio–Santos, Gustavo Montejavo

2020 Faculty Bibliography

Two isolates of Oculatella from biological soil crusts in the arid and semi–arid tropical upland region of México were characterized using a polyphasic approach which included morphology, ecology, 16S rRNA and 16S–23S ITS phylogenetic analysis, percent identity of 16S rRNA gene sequence, percent dissimilarity of 16S–23S ITS sequence, and secondary structure of conserved ITS domains. The two species shared the generic synapomorphy of a reddish granule at the tip of mature apical cells, and possessed a single ribosomal

operon with both tRNA genes (tRNAIle and tRNAAla) based upon our analysis and the analysis of the other spe- cies in the …

Phylogeny And Taxonomy Of Synechococcus–Like Cyanobacteria, Jiri Komarek, Jeffrey R. Johansen, Jan Smarda, Otakar Strunecký

2020 Faculty Bibliography

Unicellular cyanobacteria constitute a substantial, ecologically important part of freshwater and marine microflora. Solitary, elongated cyanobacterial cells without apparent slime envelopes and dividing in a single plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis were traditionally classified into the genus Synechococcus. The type species originates from a freshwater benthic habitat while a number of other Synechococcus–like species were described from diverse environments. Morphologically similar, unicellular populations of “Synechococcus” belong to the most abundant oxygen evolving prokaryotes inhabiting freshwater and oceanic picoplanktic communities. Other species from extreme thermal habitats were described from temperatures over 70 °C. Recent molecular analyses, particularly the 16S rRNA …