PIGMENTUM’ is a new chemotaxonomic tool based on an HPLC pigment dataset and simultaneous equations that take into account the lack of exclusiveness of diagnostic pigments and which uses ‘pigment groups’ to define the community composition. This tool does not require prior knowledge on the community composition of the study area, generic pigment ratios are applied, samples are treated independently and it allows individualised ratio correction if necessary. Additionally, PIGMENTUM is efficient for phytoplankton monitoring in a wide variety of aquatic systems and environmental conditions, allowing monitoring the variability of the community over time and space and/or determining the groups causing eutrophication or isolated blooms, without the need for using additional techniques.

In the following link, you will find PIGMENTUM. You just need to introduce your HPLC pigment data (in µg/L) in the “Initial dataset” table and you will obtain the phytoplankton community composition of your samples by “pigment-groups”.