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MONITORING CHLOROPHYLL-A AS A MEASURE OF ALGAE IN LAKE WATER
Citation:
An, Y. AND D H. Kampbell*. MONITORING CHLOROPHYLL-A AS A MEASURE OF ALGAE IN LAKE WATER. Presented at Spring Conference of Environmental Engineers, Soeul, South Korea, 05/03-04/2002.
Description:
Algae are an important quality component in water bodies. They are photosynthesizing organisms and are the foundation of most aquatic food webs; however, some algae (e.g. blue-green algae) can produce algal toxins. The presence of algal toxins in water bodies has important implications for humans, as well as aquatic organisms. Monitoring of chlorophyll-a concentrations can serve as a good predictor of algal concentrations. A previous study used measurement of chlorophyll-a as an indicator of the viable algae content of water since chlorophyll-a reverts to phaeophytin-a upon death of the algae (1). The seasonal variation of algae was investigated using chlorophyll-a as a measure of algae biomass. We monitored chlorophyll-a concentrations from March 2000 to October 2001 in Lake Texoma, which is located on the Oklahoma and Texas border. It was a measure to predict the viable algal levels during seasons.