Abstract Pigments in acetone extracts of microbialites collected over a shallow depth gradient from the freshwater Fayetteville Green Lake (FGL), Fayetteville, NY were analyzed. Pigment identifications and quantification were achieved using reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography and ion trap multi-stage mass spectrometry (MSn). Chlorophyll a and its derivatives, the photoprotective pigment scytonemin and the carotenoid, fucoxanthin, were present in all samples; β-carotene was observed in all but one sample and minor abundances of other pigments, such as chlorophyll d and lutein, were observed in selected samples. The concentration of scytonemin and its abundance relative to that of chlorophyll a decreased logarithmically with depth, consistent with the function of scytonemin as a UV screening pigment. The increase in the concentration of chlorophylls a, b and the photosynthetic accessory carotenoids, fucoxanthin and β-carotene with depth, are consistent with the lower irradiance at depth. The distribution and relative abundances of photosynthetic and light shielding pigments may provide a means for determining the relative water depth/incident radiation levels of ancient microbialites in which pigments or their derivatives are preserved.

中文翻译：

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费耶特维尔绿湖淡水微生物群中色素分布的环境控制

摘要 分析了从纽约费耶特维尔淡水费耶特维尔绿湖 (FGL) 浅层深度梯度收集的微生物菌体丙酮提取物中的颜料。使用反相高效液相色谱和离子阱多级质谱 (MSn) 实现了颜料的鉴定和定量。所有样品中都含有叶绿素 a 及其衍生物、光保护色素 scytonemin 和类胡萝卜素岩藻黄质；除了一个样品外，所有样品中都观察到了 β-胡萝卜素，在选定的样品中观察到了少量的其他色素，如叶绿素 d 和叶黄素。scytonemin 的浓度及其相对于叶绿素 a 的丰度随深度呈对数下降，这与 scytonemin 作为紫外线屏蔽色素的功能一致。叶绿素 a、b 和光合辅助类胡萝卜素、岩藻黄质和 β-胡萝卜素浓度随深度的增加，与深度较低的辐照度一致。光合色素和遮光色素的分布和相对丰度可以提供一种方法来确定保存色素或其衍生物的古代微生物岩的相对水深/入射辐射水平。