{"id":295,"date":"2012-12-03T19:49:11","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T19:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/?p=295"},"modified":"2017-05-03T20:36:17","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T20:36:17","slug":"seeing-red-the-future-of-seagrasses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/2012\/12\/03\/seeing-red-the-future-of-seagrasses\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Red: the future of seagrasses?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Red<\/a>We’re into red leaves.<\/strong>\u00a0 Why?<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 Because often the red substances are anthocyanins.<\/strong>\u00a0 These colorful compounds can shield plants from the harmful effects of too much light, especially\u00a0dangerous UV light, and heat.\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0Australia researchers have observed reddened seagrass leaves for quite a while (think ozone hole – lots of UV light).\u00a0 Now researchers\u00a0are finding that it is a common response in these plants, and that it protects them.\u00a0 Similar respones have been observed on land, where immature leaves are often redish.\u00a0 Could this answer the oft-asked question: Why are\u00a0young leaves red?<\/p>\n

The nice thing about proposal writing is that we’re forced to re-read the literature and uncover gems like\u00a0the\u00a0recent papers by Alyssa Novak and Fred Short.\u00a0 Here’s one:<\/p>\n

Leaf reddening in the seagrass Thalassia testudinum in relation to anthocyanins, seagrass physiology and morphology, and plant protection <\/a>Author(s): Novak, Alyssa B.; Short, Frederick T.\u00a0 Source: MARINE BIOLOGY\u00a0\u00a0Volume: 158 \u00a0\u00a0Issue: 6\u00a0\u00a0Pages: 1403-1416<\/p>\n

And what happens when seagrass leaves turn red?\u00a0 It is\u00a0possible that they will be less palatable and nutritious to grazers (sorry waterfowl, manatee, and turtles) and more resistant to decay.\u00a0\u00a0But that depends on which phenolic subtances might be accumulating with the anthocyanins and a host of other factors.\u00a0 Our recent study of ocean acidification showed that high CO2 levels caused a decrease in many phenolic substances.\u00a0 But we didn’t measure anthocyanins.\u00a0 It will be interesting to dive back into the freezer an analyze those tissues!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re into red leaves.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because often the red substances are anthocyanins.\u00a0 These colorful compounds can shield plants from the harmful effects of too much light, especially\u00a0dangerous UV…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/arnoldt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}