Measuring Photosynthetic Pigments

Abstract

The concentration of photosynthetic pigments is commonly used as a measure of the amount of plant material in a sample (Cullen, 1982), and photosynthesis rates are frequently normalized to chlorophyll a concentration (Jassby and Platt, 1976). In addition, assessments of pigment composition provides qualitative information on the physiological condition of natural samples by providing information on the presence of breakdown products (Hallegraeff and Jeffrey, 1985) and provides information on the taxonomic composition of algal populations via an analysis of accessory pigments (Jeffrey, 1976; Liaaen-Jensen, 1977; Jeffrey and Hallegraeff, 1987a, b; Wright and Jeffrey, 1987; Hooks et al., 1988). Estimations of pigment content and complement are also the basis of quantitative assessments of the relationship among light harvesting, photosynthesis, and growth (Mann and Myers, 1968; Bidigare et al., 1989).