Review of publications shows that biochemical methods become widespread in hydrobiological investigations of sea and freshwaters serving as alternative to labor- and time-consumimg microscopic accounting of phytoplankton biomass. Photosynthetic pigments analyzed by means of spectrophotometric, fluorescent, or chromatographic methods are the most often used markers of biomass. Under high pigment diversity in algae, the HPLC looks like the most perspective for determination of total biomass of algacenoses as well as relative abundance of large taxonomic groups.

Keywords: phytoplankton, biomass, pigments, method of analyses

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