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Incoming Light (incoming + light)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

The role of light for fish,zooplankton,phytoplankton interactions during winter in shallow lakes , a climate change perspective

FRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2009
METTE ELISABETH BRAMM
Summary 1.,Variations in the light regime can affect the availability and quality of food for zooplankton grazers as well as their exposure to fish predation. In northern lakes light is particularly low in winter and, with increasing warming, the northern limit of some present-day plankton communities may move further north and the plankton will thus receive less winter light. 2.,We followed the changes in the biomass and community structure of zooplankton and phytoplankton in a clear and a turbid shallow lake during winter (November,March) in enclosures both with and without fish and with four different light treatments (100%, 55%, 7% and <1% of incoming light). 3.,In both lakes total zooplankton biomass and chlorophyll- a were influenced by light availability and the presence of fish. Presence of fish irrespective of the light level led to low crustacean biomass, high rotifer biomass and changes in the life history of copepods. The strength of the fish effect on zooplankton biomass diminished with declining light and the effect of light was strongest in the presence of fish. 4.,When fish were present, reduced light led to a shift from rotifers to calanoid copepods in the clear lake and from rotifers to cyclopoid copepods in the turbid lake. Light affected the phytoplankton biomass and, to a lesser extent, the phytoplankton community composition and size. However, the fish effect on phytoplankton was overall weak. 5.,Our results from typical Danish shallow eutrophic lakes suggest that major changes in winter light conditions are needed in order to have a significant effect on the plankton community. The change in light occurring when such plankton communities move northwards in response to global warming will mostly be of modest importance for this lake type, at least for the rest of this century in an IPCC A2 scenario, while stronger effects may be observed in deep lakes. [source]

Polymer Photovoltaic Cells Sensitive to the Circular Polarization of Light

ADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 20 2010
Jan Gilot
Chiral conjugated polymer is used to construct a photovoltaic cell whose response depends on the circular polarization of the incoming light. The selectivity for left and right polarized light as a function of the thickness of the polymer layer is accounted for by modeling of the optical properties of all layers inside the device. [source]

Effects of hydraulic architecture and spatial variation in light on mean stomatal conductance of tree branches and crowns

PLANT CELL & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2007
B. E. EWERS
ABSTRACT In a Pinus taeda L. (loblolly pine) plantation, we investigated whether the response to vapour pressure deficit (D) of canopy average stomatal conductance (GS) calculated from sap flux measured in upper and lower branches and main stems follows a hydraulically modelled response based on homeostasis of minimum leaf water potential (,L). We tested our approach over a twofold range of leaf area index (L; 2,4 m2 m,2) created by irrigation, fertilization, and a combination of irrigation and fertilization relative to untreated control. We found that GS scaled well from leaf-level porometery [porometry-based stomatal conductance (gs)] to branch-estimated and main stem-estimated GS. The scaling from branch- to main stem-estimated GS required using a 45 min moving average window to extract the diurnal signal from the large high-frequency variation, and utilized a light attenuation model to weigh the contribution of upper and lower branch-estimated GS. Our analysis further indicated that, regardless of L, lower branch-estimated GS represented most of the main stem-estimated GS in this stand. We quantified the variability in both upper and lower branch-estimated GS by calculating the SD of the residuals from a moving average smoothed diurnal. A light model, which incorporated penumbral effects on vertical distribution of direct light, was employed to estimate the variability in light intensity at each canopy level in order to explain the increasing SD of both upper and lower branch-estimated GS with light. The results from the light model showed that the upper limit of the variability in individual branch-estimated GS could be attributed to incoming light, but not the variation below that upper limit. A porous medium model of water flow in trees produced a pattern of variation below the upper limit that was consistent with the observed variability in branch-estimated GS. Our results indicated that stems acted to buffer leaf- and branch-level variation and might transmit a less-variable water potential signal to the roots. [source]

Longer wavelengths of light improve the growth, intake and feed efficiency of individually reared juvenile pikeperch Sander lucioperca (L.)

AQUACULTURE RESEARCH, Issue 8 2009
Ana Carolina Luchiari
Abstract We tested the effects of monochromatic light on the specific growth rate (SGR), feed intake and feed efficiency (FE) of juvenile pikeperch, Sander lucioperca (L.). Pikeperch were reared individually for 42 days in aquaria covered with blue, green, yellow or red gelatin filters or white paper (control; n=5). Linear regression analysis indicated a significant positive effect of longer wavelengths of light on the condition factor (CF), FE and SGR. The final weight, SGR and CF were significantly higher in fish reared under red than under white light, and FE was better under green, yellow and red light than under white light (Dunnett's post hoc test, P<0.05) while blue was comparable to white light in terms of the measured parameters. After the growth trial, the spectral sensitivity of photoreceptor cells in the retina was tested using microspectrophotometry, which revealed the presence of rods with ,max at ca. 530 nm and two cone classes, absorbing maximally at ca. 535 and 603 nm, all containing a porphyropsin-based pigment. These results suggest that the presence of mid and long wavelength-sensitive cones enhances visual sensitivity under mid-wavelength and long-wavelength environments, and thus supports the finding that longer wavelengths of incoming light can improve FE and SGR of the cultivated pikeperch. [source]