Figures
Fig. 1: Natural Syntrichia caninervis.
(A) Desiccated S. caninervis shoots. (B) Experimental setup, showing UV-filtering and UV-transmitting windows over S. caninervis cushions in the Mojave Desert. (C) Schematic of field window design. 
 
Fig. 2: Integrated experimental design.
 The top panel represents Syntrichia caninervis growth conditions, including field treatments and growth chamber cultures. UV-Filtered refers to plants that had UV-filtering windows in situ for one year. UV-Transmitted represents plants that had UV-transmitting windows installed, and Site Reference represents un-manipulated field-collected samples. Conditions in the field experiment included ambient sunlight and natural desiccation-hydration cycles, while conditions in the growth chamber included low light and continuous hydration. Samples from each growth condition were used in various laboratory experiments and measurements, including a simulated winter recovery from desiccation (indicated with the 0.5 to 192 hour time scale; hours post-rehydration), measurement of relative abundance of photosynthetic pigments and antioxidants (indicated with “P&A”), chlorophyll fluorescence assays (indicated with “F”), and transcriptomics (indicated with “T”). Striped arrows indicate plants received an in-laboratory UV treatment on field-manipulated, desiccated plants to test for de-hardening and PSII protection from UV radiation.
 
Fig. 3: Maximum potential PSII quantum efficiency of UV-filtered, UV-transmitted, and site reference Syntrichia caninervis over a simulated winter recovery period.
 Fv/Fm at each time point were compared pairwise using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and adjusted for multiple-testing with the Benjamini and Hochberg method. * = < 0.05, ** = < 0.01, *** = < 0.001, **** = < 0.0001.
 
 
Fig. 4: Relative content of photosynthetic pigments in UV-filtered, UV-transmitted, and site reference Syntrichia caninervis.
 Pigment and antioxidant content were quantified by HPLC in at least triplicate and normalized to total pigment content by moles. Means were compared across field treatments using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with the Benjamini and Hochberg correction for multiple tests. * = < 0.05, ** = < 0.01, *** = P < 0.001, **** = P < 0.0001.
 
Fig. 5: Principal components biplot of 1st and 2nd PCA scores based on relative photosynthesis pigment and tocopherol content in UV-filtered, UV-transmitted, un-altered field-collected (site reference), and laboratory cultured Syntrichia caninervis.
 Vectors are overlaid and scaled to show the strength of correlation. Composition 68% probability ellipses show the means (ellipse centers) and variation by treatment. Pigment and antioxidant content were quantified by HPLC in at least triplicate and normalized to total pigment content. Replicates were screened for outliers.
 
Fig. 6: Relative tocopherol content in UV-filtered, UV-transmitted, and un-altered site reference Syntrichia caninervis.
 Tocopherol content was quantified by HPLC in at least triplicate and normalized to total chlorophyll content. Means were compared across field treatments using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with the Benjamini and Hochberg correction for multiple tests. * = P < 0.05, ** = P < 0.01, *** = P < 0.001, **** = P < 0.0001.
 
Fig. 7: Principal components biplot of 1st and 2nd PCA scores based on normalized transcript counts for six field-manipulated microsite pairs (UV-filtered and UV-transmitted) of Syntrichia caninervis.
 Lines connect pairs from each of the six collection sites in the paired design.
 
Fig. 8: Normalized transcript counts of the top ten most differentially abundant (< 0.005) transcripts with UV filtering in field treated Syntrichia caninervis.