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Winter collections of sun and shade Afromontane lichens show similar non-photochemical quenching and PSII activity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2026

Richard P. Beckett Open the ORCID record for Richard P. Beckett [Opens in a new window] ,
Farida Minibayeva  and
Silke Werth
Richard P. Beckett*
Affiliation:
School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal - Pietermaritzburg Campus , South Africa Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics , Kazan, Russian Federation
Farida Minibayeva
Affiliation:
Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics , Kazan, Russian Federation
Silke Werth
Affiliation:
Systematics and Ecology of Fungi and Algae, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität , München, Germany
*
Corresponding author: Richard P. Beckett; Email: rpbeckett@gmail.com
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Abstract

Lichens have been shown to optimize their photosynthetic apparatus in response to seasonal changes in light and temperature. However, there have been few investigations on seasonal variations in the biochemical mechanisms used by lichen photobionts to protect themselves against the potentially harmful effects of high light. In our earlier work, carried out during the summer months, we showed that Afromontane lichens collected from shaded habitats display higher values of non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and lower maximum relative electron transport rates (rETRMAX) than thalli collected from sunny habitats. Here we employ chlorophyll fluorescence to show that, in contrast, winter collections of the Afromontane lichens Ramalina celastri and Usnea undulata from a diversity of sites display no significant differences in NPQ and rETRMAX between sun and shade forms. Results suggest that in the winter, shade forms downregulate their NPQ because loss of leaves causes less fluctuation in light levels, but retain similar values of rETRMAX to those of summer collections. Conversely, during the winter, thalli from exposed microhabitats downregulate their rETRMAX, presumably to reflect reduced possibilities for carbon fixation, and retain generally low values of NPQ. All winter collections display similar, high values of cyclic electron flow (CEF) and pseudocyclic electron flow (PCEF), indicating strong photoprotection of photosystem I. Taken together, the results suggest that photobionts can flexibly adjust their photosynthetic apparatus to seasonal variations in light availability.

Keywords

chlorophyll fluorescencecyclic electron flowlight stressPSIseasonal variation

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Type
Standard Paper
Information
The Lichenologist , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , January 2026 , pp. 52 - 59
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British Lichen Society

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