Optical assessment of nutrients in seawater

Abstract: The assessment of nutrient concentrations is an important task in marine sciences. Optical in situ instruments enable increasing.the temporal and spatial resolution at which these measurements can be carried out. This chapter will introduce the bases for spectrophotometric determination of nitrate and nitrite in sea water. The basic design of spectrophotometric instruments and the processing of the absorbance measurements are presented and the bases for indirect optical nutrient assessment using wet chemical analysers are introduced.