81
Fingerprinting of taxon-specific pigments and recognition of water masses
Several pigments or pigment combinations are, as we have seen, only found in certain algal
groups or classes. Van den Hoek (1978) gave a list of phytoplankton classes and their
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Figure 13. Distinction of water masses, southeast monsoon (upwelling season), in the Banda Sea (Indonesia) by
their fingerprints of algal pigments. a) Mainly Prymnesiophyceae and Cyanobacteria. b) Mainly
Prymnesiophyceae and Diatoms. c) Mainly diatoms. d) Mainly Cyanobacteria.
pigments known at that time. Since then, Hooks el al. (1988), Wright and Jeffrey (1987),
Jeffrey (1989), Olson el aZ. (1990) and Gieskes and Kraay (1983, 1986, 1988) have reported
on other taxon- specific pigments: red-shifted chI a, red-shifted ChI b, ChI c3, Prasinoxanthin
(Foss el al., 1986), 19' -hexanoyloxyfucoxanthin, 19' -butanoyloxyfucoxanthin, etc.
In different water masses, the popUlation composition of phytoplankton is usually different,
and the pigment fingerprint of the suspended matter in a sample can therefore be characteristic