Unknown chlorophyll a derivatives in the North Sea and the tropical Atlantic Ocean revealed by HPLC analysis1

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Abstract
Concentrations of chlorophylls and major carotenoids were measured in algal cultures and particulate matter from the neritic North Sea and the tropical Atlantic Ocean by conventional spectrophotometric and fluorescence acidification methods and by quantitative high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In cultures, the Chl a concentration was similar whether measured by HPLC or conventional methods. In natural samples from the North Sea and the coastal zone of the central Atlantic Ocean several pigments with light‐absorbance and fluorescence properties resembling Chl a, but chromatographically different, were responsible for overestimates of up to 40% with the conventional methods. An even greater discrepancy between methods occurred in tropical open oceanic water, where a green pigment with absorption maxima in diethyl ether at 436 and 661 nm explained >85% of the difference between HPLC and the conventional methods. This unidentified Chl a derivative was associated with particles µm which contained zeaxanthin as the major carotenoid. Its concentration was up to three times that of “normal” Chl a, assuming identical extinction coefficients.

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