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Carbon Isotope Discrimination in Cyanobacteria of Rocks of Inselbergs and Soils of Savannas in the Neotropics *
Author(s) -
Ziegler H.,
Lüttge U.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
botanica acta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.871
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1438-8677
pISSN - 0932-8629
DOI - 10.1111/j.1438-8677.1998.tb00697.x
Subject(s) - rubisco , cyanobacteria , carboxylation , soil water , microsite , isotopes of carbon , basalt , limiting , carbon fibers , transect , chemistry , soil science , photosynthesis , botany , geology , environmental chemistry , biology , total organic carbon , ecology , paleontology , mathematics , bacteria , biochemistry , seedling , composite number , engineering , catalysis , mechanical engineering , algorithm
An extensive set of data on carbon isotope ratios in samples of terrestrial cyanobacteria from the surface of rocks of inselbergs and soils of savannas in the neotropics is presented. A comparison of the data shows two surprising features. First, all values deviate from the 13 C discrimination of carboxylation by ribulose‐bis‐phosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBISCO) which is generally about −27‰. They are less negative than that by between 0.62‰ and 10.46‰. Second, the values show a considerable variation, minima and maxima being −26.38‰ and −16.54‰, respectively. This variation cannot be explained by differences in dominant taxa in the samples. It must be related to microsite characteristics, most probably the extent in time of coverage by liquid water, where diffusion of CO 2 constitutes a limiting step with a lower discrimination against 13 C than that of carboxylation via RuBISCO.