Journal
ECOLOGY
Volume 84, Issue 12, Pages 3222-3231Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1890/02-0549
Keywords
cyanobacteria; desert pavement; diaphanous rock; greenhouse effect; hypolithic autotrophs; light extinction; Mojave Desert; molecular identification; photosynthesis; quantum-use efficiency; thermal tolerance
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We used 16s rDNA sequences to identify novel species of. cyanobacteria beneath translucent quartz pebbles in the desert pavement on an alluvial piedmont of the Coxcomb Mountains in the southern Mojave Desert, California, USA. Transmission of light, as measured with an integrating sphere, was about 0.08% beneath the thickest pieces of quartz (25 mm) harboring these hypolithic autotrophs. The photosynthetic rate ranged from 0.1 to 1.0 mumol(.)m(-2.)s(-1) in the linear range of its response to light (PAR of 0-50 mumol(.)m(-2.)s(-1)), over which the apparent quantum-use efficiency was 0.019. Light-saturated rates of 1.7-2.7 mumol(.)m(-2.)s(-1) were recorded at light intensities of 200-400 mumol(.)m(-2.)s(-1). The hypolithic community had an upper thermal tolerance of >90degreesC in laboratory conditions. The quartz pebbles confer a modest greenhouse effect that may be important for photosynthetic activity during cool, wet, wintertime periods that prevail in the Mojave Desert.
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