Regulation of Pigment Sedimentation by Photo-Oxidation and Herbivore Grazing

Reversed-phase high pressure liquid chromatography was used to show that algal carotenoid sedimentation is regulated by photo-oxidation and herbivore grazing in three unproductive, north-temperate lakes. Comparison of algal carotenoid and biovolume standing stocks revealed that carotenoid concentrations in epilimnetic waters were influenced by nonplanktonic inputs of pigments as well as phytoplankton community composition. Sediment traps did not record weekly events in the water column. Pigments that were incorporated in zooplankton feces and sank rapidly (e.g. alioxanthm and pheophorbide a) were overrepresented in trap material relative to epilimnetic pigment standing stocks. Differential decay of pigments in traps could not account for this observed bias. Chlorophyll mass–balance budgets corroborated the important influence of grazing by large-bodied zooplankton on pigment sedimentation. Interannual differences in pigment sedimentation were caused by changes in zooplankton community structure and the ve...

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