Massive marimo algae balls at risk from deadly winter sunburn

Reduced lake-ice cover due to climate change may further decline of endangered species

Climate change could overexpose rare underwater “marimo” algae balls to sunlight, killing them off according to a new study at the University of Tokyo. Marimo are living fluffy balls of green algae. The world’s largest marimo can be found in Lake Akan in Hokkaido, Japan’s northern main island. Here they are sheltered from too much winter sunlight by a thick layer of ice and snow, but the ice is thinning due to global warming. Researchers found that the algae could survive bright light for up to four hours and would recover if then placed under a moderate light for 30 minutes. However, the algae died when exposed to bright light for six hours or more. The team hopes this discovery will highlight the threat of climate change to this endangered species and the urgent need to protect their habitat.

Some people have pet cats, others pet rocks, but how about pet algae? Marimo are fluffy, squishy green balls of underwater algae which have become popular with tourists, nature enthusiasts and aquarium owners. They range in size from about a pea to a basketball, and form naturally when floating strands of the algae Aegagropila linnaei are bundled together through the gentle rolling motion of lake water. They are only found in a few countries and the largest marimo, found in Lake Akan, can grow up to 30 centimeters in diameter. In Japan, they are so popular that they have their own annual festival, merchandise and even a mascot. However, marimo are an endangered species and globally their numbers are generally in decline.

Temperatures underwater are kept relatively stable and warm at around 1-4 degrees Celsius, thanks to the blanket of ice and snow. Above ground, however, they vary from minus 18 degrees to 1 degree Celsius. Credits: copyright 2022 Asami Fujita

Marimo rely on nutrients and photosynthesis to survive. Their decline is usually attributed to human intervention altering or polluting the freshwater lakes in which they live. However, there has not been much research into the effect of changing access to sunlight.

“We know that marimo can survive bright sunlight in warm summer waters, but the photosynthetic properties in marimo at low winter temperatures have not been studied, so we were fascinated by this point,” said Project Assistant Professor Masaru Kono from the Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo. “We wanted to find out whether Marimo could tolerate it and how they respond to a low-temperature, high light-intensity environment.”

Kono and team visited Lake Akan’s Churui Bay in winter to measure the temperature and light intensity underwater, both with and without ice cover. First, they bored a small hole in the ice 80 meters offshore and then carved a large 2.5 meter-by-2.5 meter square to take readings from. They also carefully collected several marimo balls about the size of a shot put (10-15 cm) by hand. Back in Tokyo, the team recreated the environmental conditions using trays of ice made with an icemaker and white LED lamps. Algae strands were removed from the marimo balls and tested for their normal photosynthetic ability. They were then placed in containers in the ice under the artificial light, which was adjusted to shine at different intensities for different periods of time.

“We demonstrated a new finding that damaged cells in marimo can repair themselves even after exposure to simulated strong daylight for up to four hours at cold temperatures (2-4 degrees Celsius), when followed by moderate light exposure for just 30 minutes. This moderate light had a restorative effect which did not occur in the dark. However, when exposed to strong daylight for six hours or more, certain cells involved in photosynthesis were damaged and the algae died, even after being treated with moderate light,” explained Kono. “These results suggest that photoinhibition (the inability to photosynthesize due to cell damage) would be a serious threat to marimo in Lake Akan, which receives more than 10 hours of sunlight a day in winter, if global warming proceeds and ice cover recedes.”

Next, the team want to find out what would happen to whole marimo balls and whether the outcome would be the same as with the smaller threads.

“In the present study, we used dissected filamentous cells, so we did not consider the effects of the structure of the spherical marimo and how it might protect against exposure to bright light. However, if damage to the surface cells increases under longer exposure to the direct sunlight, in an extreme case, this may affect the maintenance of their round bodies and lead to the disappearance of giant marimo. So, we need to constantly monitor the conditions at Lake Akan in the future” said Kono.

Kono hopes this research will help both local and national governments to understand the urgent need to protect Japan’s unique marimo and their habitat.

“We also hope this will be an opportunity for all people to think seriously about the effects of global warming,” he said.

Too much sun in cold temperatures cannot be processed and instead causes harmful, reactive chemicals to form. This damages the marimo’s ability to photosynthesize and repair itself. Credits: Copyright 2022 Akina Obara

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Paper Title:

Akina Obara, Mari Ogawa, Yoichi Oyama, Yoshihiro Suzuki, Masaru Kono. Effects of high irradiance and low water-temperature on photoinhibition and repair of photosystems in Marimo (Aegagropila linnaei) in Lake Akan, Japan. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24010060

Press release from the University of Tokyo.

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Astronomers accurately measure the temperature of red supergiant stars

red supergiant stars temperature — For the first time, astronomers develop an accurate method to determine the surface temperatures of red supergiants. Credits: © 2021 Daisuke Taniguchi/The University of Tokyo

Red supergiants are a class of star that end their lives in supernova explosions. Their lifecycles are not fully understood, partly due to difficulties in measuring their temperatures. For the first time, astronomers develop an accurate method to determine the surface temperatures of red supergiants.

Stars come in a wide range of sizes, masses and compositions. Our sun is considered a relatively small specimen, especially when compared to something like Betelgeuse which is known as a red supergiant. Red supergiants are stars over nine times the mass of our sun, and all this mass means that when they die they do so with extreme ferocity in an enormous explosion known as a supernova, in particular what is known as a Type-II supernova.

Type II supernovae seed the cosmos with elements essential for life; therefore, researchers are keen to know more about them. At present there is no way to accurately predict supernova explosions. One piece of this puzzle lies in understanding the nature of the red supergiants that precede supernovae.

Despite the fact red supergiants are extremely bright and visible at great distances, it is difficult to ascertain important properties about them, including their temperatures. This is due to the complicated structures of their upper atmospheres which leads to inconsistencies of temperature measurements that might work with other kinds of stars.

“In order to measure the temperature of red supergiants, we needed to find a visible, or spectral, property that was not affected by their complex upper atmospheres,” said graduate student Daisuke Taniguchi from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo. “Chemical signatures known as absorption lines were the ideal candidates, but there was no single line that revealed the temperature alone. However, by looking at the ratio of two different but related lines — those of iron — we found the ratio itself related to temperature. And it did so in a consistent and predictable way.”

Astronomers accurately measure the temperature of red supergiant stars: the WINERED spectrograph mounted on the Araki telescope. Credits: © 2021 Kyoto Sangyo University

Taniguchi and his team observed candidate stars with an instrument called WINERED which attaches to telescopes in order to measure spectral properties of distant objects. They measured the iron absorption lines and calculated the ratios to estimate the stars’ respective temperatures. By combining these temperatures with accurate distance measurements obtained by the European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory, the researchers calculated the stars luminosity, or power, and found their results consistent with theory.

“We still have much to learn about supernovae and related objects and phenomena, but I think this research will help astronomers fill in some of the blanks,” said Taniguchi. “The giant star Betelgeuse (on Orion’s shoulder) could go supernova in our lifetimes; in 2019 and 2020 it dimmed unexpectedly. It would be fascinating if we were able to predict if and when it might go supernova. I hope our new technique contributes to this endeavor and more.”

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Journal article

Daisuke Taniguchi, Noriyuki Matsunaga, Mingjie Jian, Naoto Kobayashi, Kei Fukue, Satoshi Hamano, Yuji Ikeda, Hideyo Kawakita, Sohei Kondo, Shogo Otsubo, Hiroaki Sameshima, Keiichi Takenaka and Chikako Yasui. Effective temperatures of red supergiants estimated from line-depth ratios of iron lines in the YJ bands, 0.97-1.32 μm. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa3855.
http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3855

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University of Tokyo

Massive marimo algae balls at risk from deadly winter sunburn

Sensing suns: Astronomers accurately measure the temperature of red supergiant stars

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