Plankton communities associated with surface films and the remainder of the water column in a Georgia salt marsh were compared. The fluorescence of acetone extracts indicated that a film several orders of magnitude richer in plant pigments than the underlying water developed as the tide rose over the marsh surface. As the tide ebbed, the concentration of pigment in the film dropped to levels similar to those in the water below. About 37% of plankton net photosynthesis was concentrated in the surface film. Respiration of the film averaged 21% of the gross photosynthesis while PS : R ratios ranged from 10.9 to 2.5.
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John L. Gallagher (1975) studied this question.