Response of the Pigment System of Conifers
to Long-Term Industrial Air Pollution

V. V. Tuzhilkina

Institute of Biology, Komi Scientific Center, Ural Division, Russian Academy of Sciences,

ul. Kommunisticheskaya 28, Syktyvkar, 167610 Russia

e-mail: tuzhilkina@ib.komisc.ru

Received April 16, 2008

Abstract—To estimate the response of conifers to long-term industrial air pollution at the pigment system
level, the dynamics of photosynthetic pigments have been studied in needles of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.)
and Siberian spruce (Picea obovata Ledeb.) growing at different distances from the emission source (a pulp and
paper mill). It has been shown that the pigment apparatus of spruce. The results show that in spruce, unlike in
pine, the pigment apparatus remains unchanged under the effect of weak pollution. Long-term exposure at high
levels of industrial emission results in suppression of chlorophyll and carotenoid syntheses in pine but stimu-
lates pigment production in spruce. An increase in the contents of pigments in the needles of conifers growing
in the impact zone of the pulp and paper mill reflects a compensatory mechanism of adaptation of their pigment
system to long-term stress exposure.

DOI: 10.1134/S1067413609040018

Key words: industrial air pollution, adaptation, conifers, pigments.

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