An In Situ Flow Cytometer For The Optical Analysis Of Individual Particles In Seawater

9416551 Olson伍兹霍尔海洋研究所将承担一项项目，开发一种仪器，使用现有的流式细胞术技术，在原位和无人看管的情况下分析单个微观颗粒的光学特性（光散射和荧光）。长期目标是开发一种自动化的系泊（最终是剖面）监测器，用于监测海洋光区的浮游植物和其他微观颗粒的光学特性。该仪器将具有与实验室流式细胞仪相当的分辨率和采样率，但将足够简单和小，可以在无人值守的情况下在海上操作数月，并具有船上处理/存储数据。使该仪器现在具有实用性的发展包括低功耗固态激光器，它提供了足够的功率，可以对单个浮游植物细胞进行荧光测量，以及人工神经网络系统，可以处理来自单个颗粒的多参数分析的大量数据。为了提高可靠性，建议采用简单的管道流来取代传统流式细胞仪机械复杂的流体动力学样品流聚焦。要使用这种简单的流动系统，需要能够识别和拒绝来自穿过激励点边缘的粒子的信号。这可以通过使用激发光学来实现，激发光学可以为通过最佳区域的粒子产生独特的信号形状。这种仪器将使海洋学家获得了解自然群落的基本特征所必需的高分辨率数据，如浮游植物细胞生长和分裂的饮食模式和浮游动物的放牧，以及为解决海洋中重要但不常见的事件所必需的扩展采样。

9416551 Olson The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will undertake a project to develop an instrument to analyze the optical properties (light scattering and fluorescence) of individual microscopic particles in situ and unattended, using established techniques of flow cytometry. The long-term goal is to develop an automated, moored (eventually profiling) monitor for the optical characteristics of phytoplankton and other microscopic particles in the euphotic zone of the ocean. The instrument will have resolution and sampling rates comparable to a laboratory flow cytometer, but will be simple and small enough to be operated unattended for months at sea, with on board processing/storage of data. Developments allowing this instrument to now be practicalinclude low-power- consumption solid state lasers providing enough power to allow fluorescence measurements of single phytoplankton cells, and artificial neural network systems to cope with the large amounts of data from multiparameter analyses of individual particles. To increase reliability, it is proposed to use a simple ducted flow to replace the mechanically complex hydrodynamic sample stream focusing of conventional flow cytometers. To use this simple flow system will require the ability to recognize and reject signals from particles passing through the edges of the excitation spot. This can be achieved by use of excitation optics that produce a unique signal shape for particles passing through the optimum region. Such an instrument will allow oceanographers to obtain both the high resolution data necessary for understanding such basic features of natural communities as diet patterns in phyto- plankton cell growth and division and zooplankton grazing, and the extended sampling necessary for resolving important but infrequent events in the ocean.