Laser methods for monitoring photosynthesising organisms

Methods for laser monitoring of photosynthesising organisms in vivo and in situ are considered. It is shown that the most informative methods, which can be used to estimate the concentration of chlorophyll-a, the photosynthetic activity, and the influence of the ambient medium on photosynthesising organisms are the pump-and-probe technique and saturation fluorometry. It is also shown that the development of methods for diagnostics of photosynthesising organisms is possible only on the basis of a detailed study of the formation of their fluorescent responce to laser pulses with specific temporal and energy characteristics.