Abstract
Pigment concentrations (chlorophylla, chlorophyllidea and pheopigmentsa) were measured by HPLC and spectrophotometry with acidification on 57 samples collected in different marine coastal sediments, containing autochthonous microphytes, and with various organic matter contents (plant detritus, biodeposits or hydrocarbons). Statistical analysis shows that the spectrophotometry with acidification, as compared to HPLC, gives reliable values for chlorophylla. Chlorophyllidea concentrations may be considered as negligible. Though spectrophotometric methods are sometimes questioned when applied to sediments they appear to give easy, quick and good estimates of Chla contents in benthic microphytes for hydrobiological studies in coastal areas.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barlow, R. G., Y. Collos, S. Y. Maestrini and S. Roy, 1990. Microphytobenthic pigments in a salt marsh pond determined by HPLC and spectrophotometry. Mar. microb. Food Webs 4:117–128.
Barrett, J. and S. W. Jeffrey, 1971. A note on the occurrence of chlorophyllase in marine algae. J. exp. mar. Biol. Ecol. 7:255–262.
Baudinet, D., E. Alliot, B. Berland, C. Grenz, M. R. Plante-Cuny, R. Plante, C. Salen-Picard, 1990. Incidence of mussel culture on biogeochemical fluxes at the sediment-water interface. Hydrobiologia 207:187–196.
Bianchi, T. S., R. Dawson and P. Sawangwong, 1988. The effects of macrobenthic deposit-feeding on the degradation of chloropigments in sandy sediments. J. exp. mar. Biol. Ecol. 122:243–255.
Blanchard, G., M. R. Plante-Cuny, A. Dinet, F. L. Samson, C. Gatje, I. Amadi, 1990. Comparison of techniques for the measurement of microphytobenthic chloropigments after cell isolation with Ludox H. S. Mar. microb. Food Webs 4:207–216.
Brown, S. R., 1968. Absorption coefficients of chlorophyll derivatives. J. Fish. Res. Bd Canada 25:523–540.
Brown, S. R., R. J. Daley and R. N. McNeely, 1977. Composition and stratigraphy of the fossil phorbin derivatives of Little Round Lake, Ontario. Limnol. Oceanogr. 22:336–348.
Brown, L. M., B. T. Hargrave and M. D. MacKinnon, 1981. Analysis of chlorophylla in sediments by High Pressure Liquid Chromatography. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 38:205–214.
Daemen, E. A. M. J., 1986. Comparison of methods for the determination of chlorophyll in estuarine sediments. Neth. J. Sea Res. 20:21–28.
Daley, R. J., 1973. Experimental characterization of lacustrine chlorophyll diagenesis. II. Bacterial, viral and herbivore grazing effects. Arch. Hydrobiol. 72:409–439.
Daley, R. J. and S. R. Brown, 1973. Experimental characterization of lacustrine chlorophyll diagenesis. I. Physiological and environmental effects. Arch. Hydrobiol. 72:277–304.
Daley, R. J., S. R. Brown and R. N. McNeely, 1977. Chromatographic and SCDP measurements of fossil phorbins and the postglacial history of Little Round Lake, Ontario. Limnol. Oceanogr. 22:349–360.
Eaton, J. W. and B. Moss, 1966. The estimation of numbers and pigment content in epipelic algal populations. Limnol. Oceanogr. 11:584–595.
Gieskes, W. W. C. and G. W. Kraay, 1980. Primary productivity and phytoplankton pigment measurements in the northern North Sea during FLEX. “76, Meteor” Forsch. Ergebnisse Reihe A 22:105–112.
Gieskes, W. W. C. and G. W. Kraay, 1986. Analysis of phytoplankton pigments by HPLC before, during and after mass occurrence of the microflagellateCorymbellus aureus during the spring bloom in the open northern North Sea in 1983. Mar. Biol. 92:45–52.
Hallegraeff, G. M. and S. W. Jeffrey, 1985. Description of new chlorophylla alteration products in marine phytoplankton. Deep Sea Res. 32:697–705.
Hawkins, A. J. B., B. L. Bayne, R. F. C. Mantoura and C. A. Llewellyn, 1986. Chlorophyll degradation and absorption throughout the digestive system of the blue musselMytilus edulis L. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 96:213–223.
Holt, A. S. and E. E. Jacobs, 1954. Spectroscopy of plant pigments. I. Ethyl chlorophyllides A and B and their pheophorbides. Am. J. Bot. 41:710–717.
Hurley, J. P. and D. E. Armstrong, 1990. Fluxes and transformations of aquatic pigments in Lake Mendota, Wisconsin. Limnol. Oceanogr. 35:384–398.
Jacobsen, T. R., 1978. A quantitative method for the separation of chlorophyllsa andb from phytoplankton pigments by High Pressure Liquid Chromatography. Mar. Sci. Comm. 4:33–47.
Jeffrey, S. W., 1974. Profiles of phytosynthetic pigments in the ocean using thin layer chromatography. Mar. Biol. 26:101–110.
King, L. L. and D. J. Repeta, 1991. Novel pyropheophorbide steryl esters in Black Sea sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 55:2067–2074.
Klein, B., 1989. Determination of marine phytoplankton and microphytobenthos biomass and diversity by means of algal pigment analysis. Ph. D. Thesis, University of Groningen, Netherlands, 87 p.
La Giraudière (de), I., P. Laborde and J. C. Romano, 1989. HPLC determination of chlorophylls and breakdown products in surface microlayers. Mar. Chem. 26:189–204.
Leavitt, P. R. and S. R. Carpenter, 1990. Aphotic pigment degradation in the hypolimnion: implications for sedimentation studies and paleolimnology. Limnol. Oceanogr. 35:520–534.
Lorenzen, C. J., 1967. Determination of chlorophyll and pheopigments: spectrophotometric equations. Limnol. Oceanogr. 12:343–346.
Lorenzen, C. J. and N. J. Downs, 1986. The specific absorption coefficients of chlorophyllidea and pheophorbidea in 90% acetone, and comments on the fluorometric determination of chlorophyll and pheopigments. Limnol. Oceanogr. 31:449–452.
Lorenzen, C. J. and S. W. Jeffrey, 1980. Determination of chlorophyll in seawater. Report of intercalibration tests. UNESCO technical papers in marine science 35:1–20.
Mantoura, R. F. C. and C. A. Llewellyn, 1983. The rapid determination of algal chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments and their breakdown products in natural waters by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Analytica chim. Acta 151:297–314.
Marker, A. F. H., 1977. Snme problems arising from the estimation of chlorophylla and pheophytina in methanol. Limnol. Oceanogr. 22:578–579.
Marker, A. F. H. and S. Jinks, 1982. The spectrophotometric analysis of chlorophylla and pheopigments in acetone, ethanol and methanol. In: Rai H. and A. F. H. Marker: The measurement of photosynthetic pigments in freshwaters and standardization of methods. Arch. Hydrobiol. Beih. Ergebn. Limnol. 16:3–17.
Marker, A. F. H., E. A. Nuscl, H. Rai and B. Riemann, 1980. The measurement of photosynthetic pigments in freshwaters and standardization of methods: conclusions and recommendations. Arch. Hydrobiol. Beih. Ergebn. Limnol. 14:91–106.
Murray, A. P., C. F. Gibbs, A. R. Longmore and D. J. Flett, 1986. Determination of chlorophyll in marine waters: intercomparison of a rapid HPLC method with full HPLC, spectrophotometric and fluorometric methods. Mar. Chem. 18:211–227.
Neveux, J., D. Delmas, J. C. Romano, P. Algarra, L. Ignatiades, A. Herbland, P. Morand, A. Neori, D. Bonin, J. Barbe, A. Sukenik and T. Berman, 1990. Comparison of chlorophyll and phaeopigment determinations by spectrophotometric, fluorometric, spectrofluorometric and HPLC methods. Mar. microb. Food Webs 4:217–238.
Otsuki, A. and N. Takamura, 1988. Comparison of chlorophylla concentrations measured by fluorometric HPLC and spectrophotometric methods in highly eutrophic shallow Lake Kasumigaura. Verh. Internat. Verein. Limnol. 23:944–951.
Pamatmat, M. M., 1968. Ecology and metabolism of a benthic community on an intertidal sandflat. Int. Revue ges. Hydrobiol. 53:211–298.
Plante, R., M. R. Plante-Cuny and J. P. Reys, 1986. Photosynthetic pigments of sandy sediments on the north Mediterranean coast: their spatial distribution and its effects on sampling strategies. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 34:133–141.
Plante-Cuny, M. R., 1974. Evaluation par spectrophotométrie des teneurs en chlorophyllea fonctionnelle et en phéopigments des substrats meubles marins. ORSTOM Nosy-Bé, Doc. multigr. 45:1–76.
Riaux-Gobin, C., C. A. Llewellyn and B. Klein, 1987. Microphytobenthos from two subtidal sediments from North Brittany. II. Variations of pigment compositions and concentrations determined by HPLC and conventional techniques. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 40:275–283.
Ridout, P. S. and R. J. Morris, 1985. Short-term variations in the pigment composition of a spring phytoplankton bloom from an enclosed experimental system. Mar. Biol. 87:7–11.
Riemann, B., 1978. Carotenoid interference in the spectrophotometric determination of chlorophyll degradation products from natural populations of phytoplankton. Limnol. Oceanogr. 23:1059–1066.
Roy, S., 1988. Effects of changes in physiological condition on HPLC-defined chloropigment composition ofPhaeodactylum tricornutum (Bohlin) in batch and turbidostat cultures. J. exp. mar. Biol. Ecol. 118:137–149.
Saijo, Y. and T. Kamiya, 1972. Occurrence of chlorophyllidea in the sea. In: A. Y. Takenouti (ed), Biological oceanography of the northern North Pacific Ocean, Tokyo, pp. 191–197.
Sartory, D. P., 1985. The determination of algal chlorophyllous pigments by high performance liquid chromatography and spect-ophotometry. Water Res. 19:605–610.
Sawada, Y. and F. Uyeno, 1966. Studies on the acetone extracts from marine mud and faeces of pearl oyster (Pinctada martensi). I. On the absorption spectra of acetone extracts. Bull. natn. Pearl Res. Lab. 11:1298–1307.
Steele, J. H. and I. E. Baird, 1968. Production ecology of a sandy beach. Limnol. Oceanogr. 13:14–25.
Tett, P., 1982. The Loch Eil project: planktonic pigments in sediments from Loch Eil and the firth of Lorne. J. exp. mar. Biol. Ecol. 56:101–114.
Tett, P., M. G. Kelly and G. M. Hornberger, 1977. Estimation of chlorophylla and pheophytina in methanol. Limnol. Oceanogr. 22:579–580.
Wetzel, R. G., 1963. Primary productivity of periphyton. Nature 197:1026–1027.
Wetzel, R. G. and Westlake, D. F., 1969. Periphyton. Pp. 33–40 in Vollenweider R. A., ed. A manual on methods measuring primary production in aquatic environments. I.B.P. Handbook, Blackwell, n°12: Oxford and Edinburgh.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Plante-Cuny, MR., Barranguet, C., Bonin, D. et al. Does chlorophyllidea reduce reliability of chlorophylla measurements in marine coastal sediments?. Aquatic Science 55, 19–30 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00877256
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00877256