Introduction to marine phytoplankton and their pigment signatures; Metabolism and function of photosynthetic pigments; Application of pigment methods to oceanography; a selected bibliography; Simple procedures for growing SCOR reference microalgal cultures; Preparation of chlorophyll standards; Preparation of carotenoid standards; Comparison between spectrophotometric fluorometric and HPLC methods; Calibration methods for HPLC; Guidelines for collection and pigment analysis of field samples; Pigment abbreviations used by SCOR WG 78; Structural relationships between algal carotenoids; Evaluation of methods and solvents for pigment extraction; Filtration and storage of pigments from microalgae 283 UVvis spectroscopy of carotenoids; E Chlorophyll and carotenoid extinction coefficients; G Tests of accuracy of spectrophotometric equations for the simultaneous determination; Minimum criteria for identifying phytoplankton pigments