The macronutrients change in the environment leads to the
alteration of the cellular macromolecular composition (Jiang
et al., 2012; Lv et al., 2010). A lot of the methods that have been
used to determine the algae growth and identify factors limiting
the growth of algae are complicated and time-consuming. Fourier
transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a very sensitive and rapid
approach for the measurement of the macromolecular composition
(including proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) at the same time in
a single sample (Dean et al., 2010; Lv et al., 2010). In addition, FTIR
requires small amount of the biomass to complete the
measurement.