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A novel, nondestructive bioassay for assessing areal chlorophyll a in hermatypic cnidarians
Author(s) -
Thieberger Y.,
Kizner Z.,
Achituv Y.,
Dubinsky Z.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1995.40.6.1166
Subject(s) - hermatypic coral , coral , zooxanthellae , chlorophyll a , environmental science , bioassay , oceanography , cnidaria , coral bleaching , chlorophyll , environmental chemistry , remote sensing , biology , chemistry , ecology , geology , botany , paleontology , symbiosis , bacteria
Changes in coral coloration caused by various environmental factors such as eutrophication, thermal pollution, and rise in sedimentation levels prompted us to develop nondestructive tools for the early detection of destabilization of the zooxanthellae‐coral symbiosis. We describe a method that can be used to assess coral pigmentation. This method is based on a correlation between the areal Chl a measurement and spectrophotometric analysis of a photographic slide of the same coral. Optical density values of the color slide are then converted into corresponding Chl a concentrations. This method can be used for the nondestructive assessment of chlorophyll concentration. A visual field bioassay based on this relationship is demonstrated. A laminated photograph of common corals of different shades of color and different chlorophyll content is used for the underwater evaluation of the pigmentation of living corals.