EN
Using laboratory cultures of algae and natural phytoplankton populations from Nhatrang Bay (South China Sea), the relationship between the chlorophyll fluorescence F0, the chlorophyll a concentration Ca and light absorption capacities of algae cells was studied. It is shown that the ratio F0/Ca depends mainly on the species composition of the algae population; hence, the concentration Ca can be measured with the fluorescence method with acceptable accuracy only when the species composition of algae populations varies over a rather narrow range. The fluorescence F0 can, however, be a good index of the total absorption capacities of different phytoplankton species, because the intensity of F0 depends on the sum total of light absorbed by all photosynthetic pigments in a plant cell. Thus, the fluorescence F0 measures not only the concentration of chlorophyll a, but that of all photosynthetic pigment concentrations.