Occurrence of high concentrations of a unique degradation product of chlorophyll-a in particles residing below the thermocline throughout a period of oxygen depletion in Lake Kinneret

An unrecognized chlorophyllous pigment, designated Pheob4, was the most abundant degradation product of chlorophyll-a (Chla) in the hypolimimnion, benthic boundary layer and sedimenting particles in Lake Kinneret in June-July 1997, when a prolonged period of residual oxygen concentration was found below the thermocline. The highest concentration of Pheob4 was found in the benthic boundary layer, where it reached as high concentration as 2 μg l-1. In sediment traps positioned below the thermocline Pheob4 constituted from about 5 to 20% of the Chl-a concentration and in bottom sediments from 5 to 185%. Pheob4 was not detected in epilimnetic water samples, but was found in sediment traps located within the oxygenated water column, within the range of surface wave action. Comparison of regular traps, with traps poisoned by formaldehyde indicates that the importance of Pheob4- containing particles in the sedimentation flux is relatively low, and that the bulk of Pheob4 found in the bottom sediment is apparently a result of Chl-a transformation in situ by biological activity. The timing and location of Pheob4 appearance coincided with the lake compartments where denitrification apparently took place. This suggests that Pheob4 may be used as a target pigment to trace organic matter processing under transient conditions in the water column and on the bottom sediments. Pheob4 was tentatively identified as 132, 172 cyclophaeophorbide-a enol. But, since the identification was done on a different system than the one used for the analysis of most of the samples, further investigation is required to verify that finding.