Original paper
Measurements of chlorophyll-a from phytoplankton using ethanol as extraction solvent
Jespersen, Anne-Mette; Christoffersen, Kirsten
Archiv für Hydrobiologie Volume 109 Number 3 (1987), p. 445 - 454
19 references
published: May 22, 1987
DOI: 10.1127/archiv-hydrobiol/109/1987/445
ArtNo. ESP141010903007, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
The use of ethanol as extraction solvent for the determination of chlorophyll-a was evaluated on a variety of cultures and natural populations of phytoplankton. Ethanol was equally efficient as methanol in the extraction of chlorophyll-a from cultures or natural populations of phytoplankton. An extraction period of 6 hours in cold ethanol was in most cases sufficient to complete the extraction, but longer extraction time or heating the solvent may be necessary when green algae dominate the plankton. The extraction efficiency decreases 10—25 %, when water reduced the ethanol concentration from 96 % to 83.5 %. Interference from chlorophyll-b in the spectrophotometric determination of chlorophyll-a in ethanol comprised 3—9 % and should be ignored in routine determinations of chlorophyll-a from phytoplankton.
Keywords
ethanol • chlorophyll-a • phytoplankton • algae • methanol