The water‐soluble phycobiliprotein (phb) pigments are confined to two important taxa of photosynthetic microorganisms (Cyanobacteria, Cryptophyta). Detection and quantitation of these pigments in a manner analogous to that of chlorophyll can provide more information about the composition of the plankton population than chlorophyll analysis alone. A technique is described for the extraction, identification, and quantitation of phycoerythrins and phycocyanins from cultures and seawater samples. A means of distinguishing the predominant phb‐containing component of a sample is suggested. Analysis of estuarine samples indicates an average phycocyanin content of 0.043 µ g·liter ‒1 from cyanobacteria and a phycoerythrin average of 0.005 µ g·liter ’ from cryptophytes.
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Stewart et al. (1984) studied this question.