Note
Although most chlorophyll in living plants is present as chlorophylls-a, b or c, dead algae show a sharp increase in pigment diversity and the degradation products of chlorophyll pigments may be abundant in sediments. Sedimentary pigments contain chlorophylls-zz, band c, as well as their chlorophyllides, phaeophorbides and phaeophytins. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively sample deepwater sediments (75-300 m) for chlorophyll-a and phaeophytin-a and to investigate the distribution of these pigments in Florida Current continental shelf sediments along nearly equal latitude transects.