Marine Conservation Society: Lancashire area group

As part of the current Marine ID course I’ve been running around trying to get together photos of some common seaweed for part 2… Unfortunately the local coastline is not at all hospitable to seaweed, the extensive mudflats of Morecambe bay are good for molluscs and worms, but offer few attachment points for the larger algal species (I think the phytoplankton might be a fascinating study – but that would be a bit outside the current remit!).

Never the less, I took my camera down to the beach at the weekend for the MCS walk from Warton Crag and round Jenny Browns Point by Silverdale (Saturday 24th April).

Here there is some hard ground, allowing seaweed to get a hold. Highest up the rocks appeared Blidingia (filamentous green stuff) and small amounts of Ulva intestinalis (fatter tubular green stuff), followed by Pelvetia canaliculata (channel wrack), at the base of the sequence was Fucus spriralis (spiral wrack) – beyond that stretched the mud as far as the eye can see…

The complete sequence was over in about 30cm of height – so extremely truncated!

Thanks to Hilary for organising the walk (my feet have almost forgiven me!)

The chlorophyl pigments have long been believed to be the basis for all autotrophy/phototrophy on earth, and these pigments therefore pretty much prop up the rest of the food chain (including yours truly). We know eukaryotic algae have a range of ‘helper pigments’ – this is why red algae are red, and not (usually!) green, but these transfer energy to the chlorophyl system, rather than drive metabolic pathways directly.

In 2000 a new group of membrane based proteins the proteorhodopsins were discovered in some cyanobacteria (blue green algae). These were shown to have the ability to drive a trans-membrane proton pump using only sunlight. Initially believed to have a sensory function, the latest work published in PLoS Biology indicates that the proton gradient created by the pump can drive the ADP-ATP conversion, and so be used as a general energy source for the cell. The long and the short of it is that cyanobacteria that have proteorhodopsin survive starvation in sunlight better than those that don’t, implying strongly that the proteorhodopsin generates real nutritional value for the bacterium.

This paper reinforces my prejudice that the prokaryotes are advanced organisms. These little guys might not have gone in for massive cellular machinery, but the chemistry they can do is really top notch!

Gómez-Consarnau L, Akram N, Lindell K, Pedersen A, Neutze R, et al. (2010) Proteorhodopsin Phototrophy Promotes Survival of Marine Bacteria during Starvation.
PLoS Biol 8(4): e1000358.doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000358

“Day 44: Still stranded with nothing but empty water as far as the eye can see”

More truth in this cartoon than a page of words. Enjoy! (View full size).