| A HPLC protocol is described which permits analysis of the pigment composition of coastal and intertidal sediments. The HPLC technique has been extensively applied to phytoplankton pigments for fifteen years. Papers dealing with living benthic microphytic populations have been more rare, due to complexity existing in the sediment surface, where pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids) from several taxonomic groups of microalgae are mixed with degraded pigments from senescent phytoplankton cells and macrophytic material. The present paper describes in detail a protocol adapted from Kraay et al. (1992), which allows a good discrimination of photosynthetic pigments of microphytobenthos communities. The following procedure is recommended. Sediment samples are... |
