Patterns of major photosynthetic pigments in freshwater algae. 1. Cyanoprokaryota, Rhodophyta and Cryptophyta

Besides ultrastructural and biochemical characteristics, thallus color, which is due to antenna pigments of the photosynthetic apparatus, is one of the major distinguishing criteria in the classification of algae, finding its reflection in the likes of cyanoprocaryota, rhodophyta, chlorophyta, xanthophyceae, chrysophyceae, or phaeophyceae. The majority of past studies on algal pigments, however, have dealt almost exclusively with abundant marine taxa of the coccolithophorids (prymnesiophyceae haptophyta), bacillariophyceae (heterokontophyta), dinophyta or benthic macroalgae (eg. Gieskes & Kraay 1983, Mantoura & Llewellyn 1983, Wright & Shearer 1984, Gieskes & Kraay 1986a, b, Klein & Sournia 1987, Roy 1989, Veldhuis & Kraay 1990, Kohata & Watanabe 1991, Wright et al 1991, Tester et al. 1995, Jeffrey et al. 1997, Hiraoka et al. 1998, Meyer-Harms & Pollehne 1998, Schofield et al. 1998). As a consequence, detailed information about typical limnic taxa is still scarce, to date (e.g. Millie et al. 1990, Senge & Senger 1991, Wilhelm et al. 1991, Woitke et al. 1996, Nicklisch & Woitke 1999).