The brine shrimp Artemia salina (Linnaeus, 1758) has been used for ecotoxicity testing, both in field and laboratory settings. Carotenoid composition of A. salina plays a role in mitigation of physiological stress and maintaining homeostasis. We exploited the fact that carotenoids are easily detectable under resonance Raman (RR) conditions by conducting in-vivo Raman measurements on A. salina . Here we report for the first time the in vivo characterization of A. salina pigments using RR spectroscopy and, based on these results we further explored the carotenoid profile of this crustacean as a proxy to readout the environmental parameters variability of hypersaline lakes from a balneary resort during cold and warm season. The in vivo carotenoids characterization is feasible using RR spectroscopy, Lorentz deconvolution of the main carotenoid ν 1 (C=C) band revealed up to five peaks; implying spatio-temporal variations in carotenoid species content. Spectral features of peak positions and area of these deconvoluted bands revealed variations between cold and warm season. Contribution of specific carotenoid species can be connected to parameters such as salinity and nutritional resource availability which affect conversion of carotenoids by A. salina . These findings demonstrate in-vivo Raman measurements of A. salina could provide relevant and valuable informations for ecological, ecotoxicological, and biological studies of A.salina .
Maškarić et al. (Mon,) studied this question.