Carotenoid Pigments in Microzooplankton: Characterization and Relation to Biomass

在过去的十年里，微型浮游动物 是远洋食物链过程的重要组成部分。 估计微型动物的生物量是一个主要的困难 这可能通过使用颜料类似物来解决。 的 类胡萝卜素色素很容易从微型浮游动物中分离出来， 高效液相色谱法 使用各种各样的 培养的动物和各种培养条件，研究将 解决组织类胡萝卜素含量与 微型浮游动物生物量，并确定主要来源 关系中的差异。 该研究不仅评估 这些色素作为生物量估计器的有用性，但将 指出了色素生物化学研究新领域， 远洋生态学 食物链的快速和就地测量 互动是未来长期基础的一部分， 对海洋中生物过程的无意观察。 新 具有现场适用性的技术是必要的 生物海洋学的进步，这项研究将 详细评估新方法及其误差来源。 %%% 近几年海洋食物链动态的密切研究 多年来的研究表明，许多掠夺性活动和转移 材料涉及普通生物无法捕获的小生物。 浮游生物网 这些生物数量众多，体积小， 很难快速确定它们的定量意义， 重复的方式。 因为它们含有类胡萝卜素色素， 快速提取和分析，色素含量可能是 动物生物量的有用指标。 这种可能性将是 在实验室中培养的各种生物体上进行了测试， 从海上收集的。

Over the past decade it has become clear that microzooplankton are important contributors to pelagic food chain processes. Estimating microzooplanktonic biomass is one major difficulty that can possibly be resolved by use of pigment analogs. The carotenoid pigments are easily isolated from microzooplankton by high performance liquid chromatography. Using a wide variety of cultured animals and various culture conditions, the study will address the correlation between tissue carotenoid content and microzooplankton biomass and identify principal sources of variance in the relationship. The study will not only evaluate the usefulness of these pigments as biomass estimators, but will indicate new areas of investigation of pigment biochemistry in pelagic ecology. Fast and >in situ> measures of food chain interactions are part of the foundation for future long term, untended observations of biological processes in the sea. New techniques with field applicability are necessary for the advancement of biological oceanography, and this study will assess a new method and its sources of error in detail. %%% Close examination of the food chain dynamics of the sea in recent years has shown that much predatory activity and transfer of material involves small organisms not captured by ordinary plankton nets. The organisms are numerous and small making it difficult to establish their quantitative significance in a fast, repeatable way. Since they contain carotenoid pigments which can be extracted and analyzed quickly, the pigment content may be a useful indicator of animal biomass. This possibility will be tested on a variety of organisms grown in the laboratory and collected from the sea.//