High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) pigment analysis from rosette bottle samples at various depths from CCE LTER process cruises in the California Current System, 2006 and 2008 (ongoing).

High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) samples are collected from rosette bottles (from three to eight different depths in the photic zone) at stations located within the CCE region on Process cruises (since 2006, ongoing). The HPLC method is used to measure concentrations of chlorophylls and carotenoids in samples of particulate matter, which includes filtering and freezing the filter while at sea. The taxon-specific phyto-pigments are extracted back onshore. Concentrations of chlorophyll a are used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass and concentrations of other taxon-specific pigments are used to determine contributions of phytoplankton taxa to total phytoplankton biomass.