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Life Sciences

Selected Works

Antarctica

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Bryophyte Species Composition Over Moisture Gradients In The Windmill Islands, East Antarctica: Development Of A Baseline For Monitoring Climate Change Impacts, J Wasley, S A. Robinson, J D. Turnbull, D H. King, W Wanek, M Popp Feb 2013

Bryophyte Species Composition Over Moisture Gradients In The Windmill Islands, East Antarctica: Development Of A Baseline For Monitoring Climate Change Impacts, J Wasley, S A. Robinson, J D. Turnbull, D H. King, W Wanek, M Popp

Sharon Robinson

Extreme environmental conditions prevail on the Antarctic continent and limit plant diversity to cryptogamic communities, dominated by bryophytes and lichens. Even small abiotic shifts, associated with climate change, are likely to have pronounced impacts on these communities that currently exist at their physiological limit of survival. Changes to moisture availability, due to precipitation shifts or alterations to permanent snow reserves, will most likely cause greatest impact. In order to establish a baseline for determining the effect of climate change on continental Antarctic terrestrial communities and to better understand bryophyte species distributions in relation to moisture in a floristically important Antarctic …


Uv-B Screening Potential Is Higher In Two Cosmopolitan Moss Species Than In A Co-Occurring Antarctic Endemic Moss – Implications Of Continuing Ozone Depletion, J. L. Dunn, Sharon A. Robinson Feb 2009

Uv-B Screening Potential Is Higher In Two Cosmopolitan Moss Species Than In A Co-Occurring Antarctic Endemic Moss – Implications Of Continuing Ozone Depletion, J. L. Dunn, Sharon A. Robinson

Sharon Robinson

Concentrations of UV-B absorbing pigments and anthocyanins were measured in three moss species, over a summer growing season in Antarctica. Pigment concentrations were compared with a range of climatic variables to determine if there was evidence that pigments were induced by UV-B radiation, or other environmental parameters, and secondly if there were differences between species in their pigment responses. Significant seasonal differences in the potential UV-B screening pigments were found, with the two cosmopolitan species Bryum pseudotriquetrum and Ceratodon purpureus appearing better protected from the potentially damaging effects of ozone depletion than the Antarctic endemic Schistidium antarctici. Bryum pseudotriquetrum accumulated …