Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:40:08.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Environmental implications of the preservation of chloroplast ultrastructure in Eocene Metasequoia leaves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Karimah Schoenhut
Karimah Schoenhut*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, 240 South Thirty-third Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6316. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Batches of freshly fallen Metasequoia glyptostroboides litter were subjected to one of 12 degradation regimes varying in temperature, pH, and oxygen availability for a three-month decay period. The regimes were intended to simulate possible conditions prevailing during the first winter following the autumnal leaf fall for the Metasequoia dominated forests of Axel Heiberg Island ca. 45 Ma. The decayed leaves were examined by transmission electron microscopy to quantify the extent and quality of chloroplast preservation. The best preservation of chloroplast membranes was observed at pH 8.5 and at 10°C, although it was found that rapidly freezing samples also reliably preserved ultrastructural chloroplast features with a high degree of fidelity to the living state. The results from this study suggest that the ambient water chemistry of the depositional environment in the Eocene floodplain forests of Axel Heiberg Island could have been basic, and maintained by a natural carbonate buffering system, but they also demonstrate that the preservation of chloroplast features can occur under varying environmental conditions.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , Summer 2005 , pp. 424 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Anderson, B., and Anderson, J. M. 1985. The chloroplast thylakoid membrane. Pp. 231–258in Linskins, H. F. and Jackson, J. F., eds. Cell components. Springer, Berlin.Google Scholar
Armond, P. A., and Staehelin, A. L. 1979. Lateral and vertical displacement of integral membrane proteins during lipid phase transition in Anacystis nidulans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 76:1901–1905.Google Scholar
Aronoff, S. 1960. The chlorophylls: an introductory survey. Pp. 3–19in Vernon, L. P. and Seely, G. R., eds. The chlorophylls. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Basinger, J. F. 1991. The fossil forests of the Buchanan Lake Formation (early Tertiary), Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago: preliminary floristics and paleoclimate. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 403:39–65.Google Scholar
Brown, S. R., Daley, R. J., and McNeely, R. N. 1977. Composition and stratigraphy of the fossil phorbin derivatives of Little Round Lake, Ontario. Limnology and Oceanography 22:336–348.Google Scholar
Bussotti, F., Gravano, E., Grossoni, P., and Tani, C. 1998. Occurrence of tannins in leaves of beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) along an ecological gradient, detected by histochemical and ultrastructural analyses. New Phytologist 138:469–479.Google Scholar
Cohen, A. D., and Spackman, W. 1977. Phytogenic organic sediments and sedimentary environments in the Everglades-Mangrove Complex, Part II. The origin, description, and classification of the peats of southern Florida. Palaeontographica, Abteilung B 162:72–114.Google Scholar
Didyk, B. M., Simoneit, B. R. T., Brassell, S. C., and Eglinton, G. 1978. Organic geochemical indicators of palaeoenvironmental conditions of sedimentation. Nature 272:216–222.Google Scholar
Gastaldo, R. A., and Staub, J. R. 1999. A mechanism to explain the preservation of leaf litter lenses in coals derived from raised mires. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 149:1–14.Google Scholar
Hernes, P. J., and Hedges, J. I. 1999. Geochemistry of tannin: methods and applications. Pp. 853–865in Gross, G. G., Hemingway, R. W., and Yoshida, T., eds. Plant polyphenols 2. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Hochli, M., and Hackenbrock, C. R. 1976. Fluidity in mitochondrial membranes: thermotropic lateral translational motion of intramembrane particles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 73(5):1636–1640.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Konarev, V. G. 1972. Cytochemistry and histochemistry of plants. Keter, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Larcher, W. 1995. Physiological plant ecology: ecophysiology and stress physiology of functional groups, 3d ed.Springer, Berlin.Google Scholar
LePage, B. A. 2003. A new species of Thuja (Cupressaceae) from the Late Cretaceous of Alaska: implications of being evergreen in a polar environment. American Journal of Botany 90:167–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niklas, K. J., Brown, R. M. Jr., and Santos, R. 1985. Ultrastructural states of preservation in clarkia angiosperm leaf tissues: implications on modes of fossilization. Pp. 143–159in Smiley, C. J., ed. Late Cenozoic history of the pacific Northwest. Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Obst, J. R., McMillan, N. J., Blanchette, R. A., Christensen, D. J., Faix, O., Han, J. S., Kuster, T. A., Landucci, L. L., Newman, R. H., Pettersen, R. C., Schwandt, V. H., and Wesolowski, M. F. 1991. Characterization of Canadian Arctic fossil woods. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 403:123–146.Google Scholar
Raison, J. K. 1980. Membrane lipids: structure and function. Pp. 57–83in Stumpf, P. K., ed. Biochemistry of plants, Vol. IV. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Read, J., and Francis, J. 1992. Responses of some Southern Hemisphere tree species to a prolonged dark period and their implications for high latitude Cretaceous and Tertiary floras. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 99:271–290.Google Scholar
Ricketts, B. D. 1986. New formations in the Eureka Sound Group, Canadian Arctic Islands. Geological Survey of Canada Paper 86-1B:363–374.Google Scholar
Ricketts, B. D. 1991. The influence of sedimentation and Eurekan tectonism on the fossil forest succession, eastern Axel Heiberg Island. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 403:1–27.Google Scholar
Sakai, A., and Larcher, W. 1987. Frost survival of plants: responses and adaptation to freezing stress. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Sanger, J. E. 1986. Fossil pigments in paleoecology and paleolimnology. Palaeogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 62:343–359.Google Scholar
Schoenhut, K. 2003. Preservation of ultrastructural features in Eocene Metasequoia of Axel Heiberg: implications on senescence, diagenesis, and paleo-environmental conditions. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Schoenhut, K., Vann, D. R., and LePage, B. A. 2004. Cytological and ultrastructural preservation in Eocene Metasequoia leaves from the Canadian High Arctic. American Journal of Botany 91:816–824.Google Scholar
Simpson, K. L., Lee, T. C., Rodriguez, D. B., and Chichester, C. O. 1976. Metabolism in senescent and stored tissues. Pp. 779–837in Goodwin, T. W., ed. Chemistry and biochemistry of plant pigments, Vol. I. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Spurr, A. R. 1969. A low-viscosity epoxy resin embedding medium for electron microscopy. Journal of Ultrastructural Research 26:31–42.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E., Pauls, K. P., Chia, L. S., and Sridhara, S. 1983. Free-radical mediated changes in the organization of membrane lipid bilayers: a simulation of the effects of senescence. Pp. 173–194in Thomson, W. W., Mudd, J. B., and Gibbs, M., eds. Biosynthesis and function of plant lipids. American Society of Plant Physiologists, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Vikulin, S. 1999. The Eocene and Early Oligocene floras of the Russian Plain and their relation to the paleofloras of Central Europe. In Stuchlik, L., ed. Proceedings of the Fifth European Palaeobotanical Conference. Acta Palaeobotanica (Suppl. 2):429–445. Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow.Google Scholar
Zhilin, S. G., and Yakovleva, O. V. 1994. On the preservation of anatomical and ultrathin structures of the leaf compressions of Eucommia palaeoulmoides (Eucommiaceae) from the Miocene in Kazakhstan. Botanicheskii Zhurnal 79:1–8.Google Scholar