Changes in the major dihydroporphyrin plankton pigments during the spring bloom of phytoplankton in two scottish sea-lochs

A chromatographic/fluorcmetric method was used to measure changes in the proportions of four planktonic dihydroporphyrin pigments during the spring bloom of 1979 in two fjordic sea-lochs, Creran and Etive, on the west coast of Scotland. Very little pheophytin a was detected during the bloom. Chlorophyll a and to a lesser extent chlorophyllide a, were the two main pigments found during the bloom. During senescence the main pigment breakdown route appeared to be via chlorophyllide a to pheophorbide a. These results suggest that standard methods for measurement of ‘chlorophyll ’ which do not distinguish between chlorophyll a and chlorophyllide a might significantly over-estimate the photosynthetic potential of phytoplankton.