P-31-NMR STUDY OF NATURAL PHYTOPLANKTON SAMPLES

A new fixation method was developed for the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) study of natural phytoplankton samples collected in situ. To te st NMR reliability, a Chlorella continuous culture was used in a phosp horus deficiency recovery experiment. The method was then applied to n atural metalimnetic cyanobacterial plankton. The maximum Entropy Metho d was used to enhance the generally poor signal to noise ratio resulti ng from the low amount of available material and NMR sensitivity. Sugg estions are made on how to improve reliability.