Picoplankton are important primary producers. Their abundance shows important contributions in the biological pump. In addition to flow cytometry, is there any other method for counting picoplankton abundance ?
Relative abundance of pico plankton can also be estimated by using molecular markers (basically rDNA). There is an increasing number of papers becoming on this topic.
By using epifluorescence microscopy and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) pigment analyses.
you should also check with HELCOM, aka the Helsinki Commission. They are a group that monitors the whole of the Baltic Sea in conjuction with the Nordic and Baltic nations. Its a joint effort to monitor water quality of the Baltic Sea and to address its issues. Therefore, monitoring picoplankton abundance is part of their work. They have monitoring data available, and more importantly they have documentation on how to do this (so the people doing the monitoring accross nations can follow). you can check with Helcom's website or email them.
There are field units like the LISST and the PAMAS that can give you pretty accurate counts on the field. Personally I prefer the PAMAS (ranges from 1um to 280um). And there is still the "old fashion" way of fraction filtration followed by chl-a extractions.
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