Carbohydrate as a measure of phytoplankton

Abstract

Counting the numbers of phytoplankton organisms in water samples is time-consuming. A knowledge of the kind of organisms present and their relative numbers is essential, but it is useful to have in addition a measure of the quantity of organic substance present. A number of methods have been suggested for measuring the standing crop of phytoplankton and these have been summarized recently by Strickland (1960).