Chemtax: An overdetermined linear inverse problem: estimating algal composition based on pigment biomarkers.

Description

Input files for assessing the algal composition of a field sample, based on the pigment composition of the algal groups (measured in the laboratory) and the pigment composition of the field sample.

In the example there are 8 types of algae:

Prasinophytes
Dinoflagellates
Cryptophytes
Haptophytes type 3 (Hapto3s)
Haptophytes type 4 (Hapto4s)
Chlorophytes
Cynechococcus
Diatoms

and 12 pigments:

Perid = Peridinin, 19But = 19-butanoyloxyfucoxanthin, Fucox = fucoxanthin,

19Hex = 19-hexanoyloxyfucoxanthin, Neo = neoxanthin, Pras = prasinoxanthin,

Viol = violaxanthin, Allox = alloxanthin, Lutein = lutein,

Zeax = zeaxanthin, Chlb = chlorophyll b, Chla = chlorophyll a

The input data consist of:

the pigment composition of the various algal groups, for instance determined from cultures (the Southern Ocean example -table 4- in Mackey et al., 1996)
the pigment composition of a field sample.

Based on these data, the algal composition of the field sample is estimated, under the assumption that the pigment composition of the field sample is a weighted avertage of the pigment composition of algae present in the sample, where weighting is proportional to their biomass.

As there are more measurements (12 pigments) than unknowns (8 algae), the resulting linear system is overdetermined.

It is thus solved in a least squares sense (using function lsei):

$$\min(||Ax-b||^2)$$ subject to $$Ex=f$$ $$Gx>=h$$

If there are 2 algae A,B, and 3 pigments 1,2,3 then the 3 approximate equalities ($A*x=B$) would be: $$f_{1,S} = p_{A}*f_{A,1}+p_{B}*f_{B,1}$$ $$f_{2,S} = p_{A}*f_{A,2}+p_{B}*f_{B,3}$$ $$f_{3,S} = p_{A}*f_{A,3}+p_{B}*f_{B,3}$$

where $p_{A}$ and $p_{b}$ are the (unknown) proportions of algae A and B in the field sample (S), and $f_{A,1}$ is the relative amount of pigment 1 in alga A, etc...

The equality ensures that the sum of fractions equals 1: $$1 = p_{A}+p_{b}$$

and the inequalities ensure that fractions are positive numbers $$p_{A} > 0$$ $$p_{B} > 0$$

Usage

Chemtax

Arguments

format

A list with the input ratio matrix (Ratio) and a vector with the field data (Field)

The input ratio matrixRatiocontains the pigment compositions (columns) for each algal group (rows); the compositions are scaled relative toChla(last column).
The vector with theFielddata contains the pigment composition of a sample in the field, also scaled relative toChla; the pigments are similarly ordened as for the input ratio matrix.

The rownames of matrix Ratio are the algal group names, columnames of Ratio (=names of Field) are the pigments

References

Mackey MD, Mackey DJ, Higgins HW, Wright SW, 1996. CHEMTAX - A program for estimating class abundances from chemical markers: Application to HPLC measurements of phytoplankton. Marine Ecology-Progress Series 144 (1-3): 265-283.

Van den Meersche, K., Soetaert, K., Middelburg, J., 2008. A Bayesian compositional estimator for microbial taxonomy based on biomarkers. Limnology and Oceanography Methods, 6, 190-199.

R-package BCE

Examples

Run this code

# 1. Graphical representation of the chemtax example input data
palette(rainbow(12, s = 0.6, v = 0.75))

mp     <- apply(Chemtax$Ratio,MARGIN=2,max)
pstars <- rbind(t(t(Chemtax$Ratio)/mp) ,
                  sample=Chemtax$Field/max(Chemtax$Field))
stars(pstars, len = 0.9, key.loc = c(7.2, 1.7),scale=FALSE,ncol=4,
      main = "CHEMTAX pigment composition", draw.segments = TRUE,
      flip.labels=FALSE)

# 2. Estimating the algal composition of the field sample
Nx     <-nrow(Chemtax$Ratio)

# equations that have to be met exactly Ex=f: 
# sum of all fraction must be equal to 1.
EE <- rep(1,Nx)
FF <- 1

# inequalities, Gx>=h:
# all fractions must be positive numbers
GG <- diag(nrow=Nx)
HH <- rep(0,Nx)

# equations that must be reproduced as close as possible, Ax ~ b
# = the field data; the input ratio matrix and field data are rescaled
AA     <- Chemtax$Ratio/rowSums(Chemtax$Ratio)
BB     <- Chemtax$Field/sum(Chemtax$Field)

# 1. Solve with lsei method
X <-lsei(t(AA),BB,EE,FF,GG,HH)$X
(Sample<-data.frame(Algae=rownames(Chemtax$Ratio),fraction=X))

# plot results
barplot(X,names=rownames(Chemtax$Ratio),col=heat.colors(8),
        cex.names=0.8,main="Chemtax example solved with lsei")

# 2. Bayesian sampling; 
# The standard deviation on the field data is assumed to be 0.01
# jump length not too large or NO solutions aer found!
xs <- xsample(t(AA),BB,EE,FF,GG,HH, sdB=0.01, jmp=0.025)$X
pairs(xs, main= "Chemtax, Bayesian sample")