Under the sea ice during the Arctic’s pitch-black polar night, cells power photosynthesis on the lowest light levels ever observed in nature.
The post How Does Life Happen When There’s Barely Any Light? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Summary
- Scientists have discovered that Arctic microalgae continue to photosynthesise during the polar night, despite there being minimal light and extremely low temperatures.
- Measurements made by researchers based on an icebreaker ship, which was anchored to an ice floe and allowed to drift during winter 2020, showed that microalgae were able to continue their photosynthetic processes at or close to the theoretical minimum.
- While the microalgae were neither dormant nor growing during the polar night, they were able to maintain low levels of activity in preparation for the return of daylight.
- The finding could change our understanding of when the Arctic’s short harvest season begins and extends, and also potentially deepens our knowledge of where in the ocean photosynthesis occurs.