Absorption Spectra of Aquatic Plants

[NightStalker]

I just conducted a spinach leaf pigment chromatography paper lab and have come up with an absorption spectra for chlorophyll a and b, beta kerotene, and xanthophyll but one of the questions in the discussion is asinkg me what is expected in the absorption spectra if you were to use an aquatic plant instead of a spinach leaf.
Can anyone tell me what would be expected or lead me in the right path with a link, article, or some hints?
Thanks a lot!

[alextemplet]

I would think there would be more emphasis on absorbing blue light, since it tends to penetrate the deepest into the water. It would depend on how deep the plant lives, though, and whether or not it has leaves that project to or above the surface.

[NightStalker]

thanks alex, does anyone else have anything that I could incorporate into my report?

[Nina666]

In this exercise you used a technique to separate the colored pigments found in the leaves of spinach. As you conducted this lab you saw several colors; Two bands of green- one blue-green band, and one yellow-green band, which correspond to the two kinds of chlorophyll which is used to absorb light energy from the sun. You also saw a band of yellow which corresponded to a group of pigments called xanthophylls and a band of orange that corresponded to a group of pigments called "carotenes".

During this lab you may also may have seen a band of faint gray, between the carotenes and the xanthophylls, called pheophytin. All of the pigments are involved, in some way, to the photosynthetic process. The non-chlorophyll pigments are called "accessory pigments" and play an indirect yet important role in photosynthesis. The pigments found closet to the origin at the bottom of the piece of paper are the least soluble, and the one which moved the farthest up the paper are the most soluble in the solvent system.