Nighttime hypoxia effects on ATP availability for photosynthesis in seagrass

Hypoxia is a major emerging threat to coastal ecosystems, which is closely related to the decline in seagrass meadows, but its damage mechanism is still unclear. This study found that hypoxia at night significantly reduced the photosynthetic capacity of Enhalus acoroides after reillumination. Photosystem II (PSII) was damaged by high-light stress during daytime low-tide exposure, but high-light-damaged PSII of E. acoroides could recover part of its activity indark normoxic seawater to maintain the normal operation of photosynthesis after reillumination during the next day. However, hypoxia inhibited the recovery of damaged PSII under darkness. By transcriptomic analysis and inhibitor verification experiments, dark hypoxia was shown to inhibit respiration, thereby reducing ATP production and preventing ATP from being transported into chloroplasts, which, in turn, led to an insufficient supply of energy required for PSII to recover. This study demonstrated that hypoxia has several negative impacts on the photosynthetic apparatus of E. acoroides at night reducing photosynthetic capacity after reillumination, which may be an important factor leading to the decline of the seagrass meadows.