Luminescence and photosynthesis of marine phytoplankton - a brief presentation of new results

This volume contains a set of eight papers presenting the results of the latest research into the interaction of light with marine phytoplankton by teams from the Marine Physics Department at the IO PAS in Sopot, and the Department of Environmental Physics at the Pedagogical University of Słupsk. These results were presented at the ‘Second Workshop on Luminescence and Photosynthesis of Marine Phytoplankton’ (Sopot–Paraszyno, 11–15 October 1999) sponsored by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research. This introductory article discusses the most important assumptions and objectives of the research, and outlines the latest results. These are subsequently discussed in detail in the following papers: (1) Majchrowski & Ostrowska, Influence of photo- and chromatic acclimation on pigment composition in the sea, (2) Woźniak et al., Model of the ‘in vivo’ spectral absorption of algal pigments. Part 1. Mathematical apparatus, (3) Majchrowski et al., Model of the ‘in vivo’ spectral absorption of algal pigments. Part 2. Practical applications of the model, (4)Ostrowska et al., Variability of the specific fluorescence of chlorophyll in the ocean. Part 1. Theory of classical ‘in situ’ chlorophyll fluorometry, (5) Ostrowska et al., Variability of the specific fluorescence of chlorophyll in the ocean. Part 2. Fluorometric method of chlorophyll a determination, (6) Ficek et al., Influence of non-photosynthetic pigments on the measured quantum yield of photosynthesis, (7) Ficek et al., Variability of the portion of functional PS2 reaction centres in the light of a fluorometric study. For the reader’s convenience, we append a list of the symbols denoting the physical quantities used in the texts. The nomenclature and denotations are in line with the conventions employed in the subject literature.