MEASUREMENT OF CHLOROPHYLL, RELATED PIGMENTS AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE SEA

THIS WORK WILL EXAMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF COMMERCIALLY PRODUCING A SECOND GENERATION FLUOROMETER THAT WILL SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCE THE RESEARCH AND SAMPLING CAPABILITIES OF MARINE AND FRESHWATER BIOLOGISTS AND FISHERIES SCIENTISTS WHO ROUTINELY MONITOR THE CROP SIZE, TAXONOMIC COMPOSITION, AND PRODUCTION OF PHYTOPLANKTON. SEVERAL BASIC APPROACHES TO FLUOROMETRY WILL BE INVESTIGATED: MULTISPECTRAL FLUOROMETRY, MULTIPLE EXCITATION FLASH FLUOROMETRY, AND SOLAR EXCITED FLUOROMETRY. ALTHOUGH THERE IS ADEQUATE EVIDENCE THAT ALL THREE TYPES OF FLUOROMETERS OFFER IMPORTANT ADVANTAGES OVER PRESENT INSTRUMENTS, THE LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND DATA REVIEW WILL OFFER A DEFINITIVE ANALYSIS OF THE POTENTIAL OF THESE METHODOLOGIES. THIS ANALYSIS WILL PROVIDE THE BASIS FOR THE DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND FIELD TESTING OF A NEW OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENT FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF THE DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PHYTOPLANKTON DURING PHASE II.