A COMBINED BIOLOGICAL AND FLUORESCENCE APPROACH FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF HUMIC-TYPE EXTRACELLULAR ORGANIC MATTER RELEASED BY PHYTOPLANKTON

The biological procedure based on the analysis of the extracellular medium from laboratory algal cultures was adopted in this work as a strategy aiming to favor the natural accumulation of EOM compounds that are released during the stationary growth phase of cultures. Synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy was combined with biological assays to characterize the spectral features of the humic-type fluorescence of EOM in unconcentrated samples.