The emphasis of the meeting has been on HPLC methodology and on CHEMTAX (Mackey, M. D., Mackey, D. J., Higgins, H. W., and Wright, S. W. (1996) CHEMTAX- a program for estimating class abundances from chemical markers: application to HPLC measurements of phytoplankton. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 144, 265-283).

The knowledge acquired in the last two decades, in part a consequence of the improvements in HPLC methodology, has revealed an increasing degree of complexity in phytoplankton pigment composition. HPLC protocols move between the continuous improvements provided by new techniques and the need for standardization and intercomparison. We would like to analyze the advantages of the new advances for algal ecology and examine the state of the art in this field. Although it precludes a straightforward interpretation of pigment data, pigment complexity is not a negative factor "per se" because it contains valuable information. A promising line of pigment investigation focuses on the interpretation of this information. We see CHEMTAX as an important step in this direction. After five years since CHEMTAX was first made available to the scientific community, we consider that it is time to review what has been achieved until now and discuss future prospects.

This workshop takes place within the framework of PICODIV (http://www.sb-roscoff.fr/Phyto/PICODIV/index.html), a EU contract with the goal of estimating picoplankton diversity by different techniques.