| Abstract: | The major problems encountered in studying estuarine particulate organic matter (POM) are the characterization and quantitation of different kinds of materials (e.g. detrital and living matter, algal and bacterial matter…) each type contributing a specific role in the ecosystem. The study of the activity of the electron transport system (ETS) is proposed as a tool for resolving these problems. Results obtained in our laboratory with cultures of planktonic algae and bacteria provided us with numerical relationships between ETS activity and various organic components such as chlorophyll, carbon and protein. These relationships were: ETS activity/chlorophyll = 2.6, carbon/ETS activity = 17.3, protein/ETS activity = 9.6 in algae; carbon/ETS activity = 5.9, protein/ETS activity = 7.7 in bacteria (ETS activity expressed in /i2h−1 at 20°C; chlorophyll, carbon and protein in μg). Such data can be applied in field studies to characterize the living algal and bacterial matter and, by difference, the detrital organic matter. We report here a study of the Loire estuary as an example. |
