Abstract
IN most circumstances the bulk of the biomass in a sample of sea-water consists of microscopic particles that pass the coarser plankton nets and its analysis, after the manner of the proximate analyses made in agricultural chemistry, is becoming increasingly important in assessing marine food potential. At present there exist no really satisfactory methods for doing this and the only commonly used procedures are pigment extraction methods1 which gives some measure of living plant material, and the tedious and time-consuming processes of direct microscopy. Methods such as Krey's weighing techniques2 are difficult to apply in the field and give no measure of the food potential of the solids being weighed.
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PARSONS, T., STRICKLAND, J. Proximate Analysis of Marine Standing Crops. Nature 184, 2038–2039 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1842038a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1842038a0
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