Marine Biology Commons^™

Detection Of Harmful Algal Blooms Using Photopigments And Absorption Signatures: A Case Study Of The Florida Red Tide Dinoflagellate, Gymnodinium Breve, David F. Millie, Oscar M. Schofield, Gary J. Kirkpatrick, Geir Johnson, Patricia A. Tester, Btyan T. Vintard

OES Faculty Publications

The utility of photopigments and absorption signatures to detect and enumerate the red tide dinoflagellate, Gymnodinium breve, was evaluated in laboratory cultures and in natural assemblages. The carotenoid, gyroxanthindiester, was an adequate biomarker for G. breve biomass; water‐column concentrations corresponded with cell standing crops and chlorophyll a concentrations during bloom events in Sarasota Bay, Florida. Unlike other carotenoids, the relative abundance of gyroxanthin‐diester did not change throughout a range of physiological states in culture and the gyroxanthin‐diester: chlorophyll a ratio exhibited little variability in a natural assemblage during bloom senescence. Stepwise discriminant analysis indicated that wavelengths indicative of in vivo …