THE USE OF NEAR INFRARED REFLECTANCE SPECTROMETRY FOR CHARACTERIZATION OF BROWN ALGAL TISSUE1

Measuring qualitative traits of plant tissue is important to understand how plants respond to environmental change and biotic interactions. Near infrared reflectance spectrometry (NIRS) is a cost‐, time‐, and sample‐effective method of measuring chemical components in organic samples commonly used in the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. To assess the applicability of NIRS to measure the ecologically important tissue traits of carbon, nitrogen, and phlorotannins (secondary metabolites) in brown algae, we developed NIRS calibration models for these constituents in dried Sargassum flavicans (F. K. Mertens) C. Agardh tissue. We then tested if the developed NIRS models could detect changes in the tissue composition of S. flavicans induced by experimental manipulation of temperature and nutrient availability. To develop the NIRS models, we used partial least squares regression to determine the statistical relationship between trait values determined in laboratory assays and the NIRS spectral data of S. flavicans calibration samples. Models with high predictive power were developed for all three constituents that successfully detected changes in carbon, nitrogen, and phlorotannin content in the experimentally manipulated S. flavicans tissue. Phlorotannin content in S. flavicans was inversely related to nitrogen availability, and nitrogen, temperature, and tissue age interacted to significantly affect phlorotannin content, demonstrating the importance of studies that investigate these three variables simultaneously. Given the speed of analysis, accuracy, small tissue requirements, and ability to measure multiple traits simultaneously without consuming the sample tissue, NIRS is a valuable alternative to traditional methods for determining algal tissue traits, especially in studies where tissue is limited.