Ecology of the past: old-growth mosses as potential biological proxies for past Antarctic climate
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Date
2017-07-10
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
Abstract
Climate changes in temperature, stratospheric ozone levels, wind speed and precipitation have
strong implications on the bryophyte-dominated terrestrial vegetation of Antarctica. The reduction
in stratospheric ozone substantially impacts wind, precipitation and radiation patterns over the
southern continent potentially leading to dramatic shifts in species diversity, location and
abundance. Thus, monitoring regional climates is becoming increasingly important. However, there
is a substantial need for climate proxies, e.g. biomarkers, given the sparse distribution, limitations
and short record of Antarctic meteorological stations. Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts), non-vascular
plants that are crucial components to Antarctic terrestrial life, have unique abilities to show rapid
and long-term changes in their biochemical signatures and ecophysiology in response to their
surrounding environment. Therefore, we aim to develop and use Antarctic mosses as biological
proxies for climate around the Antarctic coast. This included analysing pigments (photosynthetic
and photoprotective), stable isotopes (δ13C), hormones and sugars of a range of Continental and
Maritime mosses that have been dated using the radiocarbon bomb-pulse method. In some East
Antarctic moss species, the δ13C signature in cellulose can be an accurate and preserved way to
detect past water environments. Therefore, long-term regional climate records, such as moss water
availability and ozone levels, could be locked away as chemical signatures within ancient moss
shoots of up to 420 years old. We show, however, that this is likely to be species specific and so we
discuss the potential of various moss species, including Ceratodon purpureus, Schistidium
antarctici, Chorisodontium aciphyllym, Polytrichastrum alpinum and Bryum pseudotriquetrum, as
biomarkers. In addition, we show how important it is to evaluate the abilities of specific species to
record and preserve past local environments in order to determine the scale of which these
miniature plants can provide regional climate records. We explain that there are complications and
that various species as well as environmental factors need to be considered when using biomarkers
in the Antarctic.
Description
Keywords
Ecology, Paleoclimatology, Mosses, Antarctic regions, Historical aspects, Hormones, Saccharides, Stable isotopes, Species diversity
Citation
Waterman, M., Hua, Q., Casanova-Katny, A., Zúñiga, G. E., & Robinson, S. (2017). Ecology of the past: old-growth mosses as potential biological proxies for past Antarctic climate. Paper presented at the XIIth SCAR Biology Symposium, Leuven, Belgium, 10 t0 14 July 2017. In Van de Putte, A. (ed.). 2017. Book of abstracts: XIIth SCAR Biology Symposium (p. 426). Retrieved from https://kuleuvencongres.be/scarbiology2017/files/bookofabstracts.pdf#