Chlorophyll fluorimetry as a method for studying light absorption by photosynthetic pigments in marine algae

Using laboratory cultures of algae and natural phytoplankton populations from Nhatrang Bay (South China Sea), the relationship between the chlorophyll fluorescence F0, the chlorophyll a concentration Ca and light absorption capacities of algae cells was studied. It is shown that the ratio F0/Ca depends mainly on the species composition of the algae population; hence, the concentration Ca can be measured with the fluorescence method with acceptable accuracy only when the species composition of algae populations varies over a rather narrow range. The fluorescence F0 can, however, be a good index of the total absorption capacities of different phytoplankton species, because the intensity of F0 depends on the sum total of light absorbed by all photosynthetic pigments in a plant cell. Thus, the fluorescence F0 measures not only the concentration of chlorophyll a, but that of all photosynthetic pigment concentrations.