Fabrication of a High Throughput Flow Imaging Cytometer for Analysis of Plankton Populations

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9711168 Sieracki The Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences will undertake an instrument development project to construct an imaging flow cytometer that can enumerate and classify plankton in the size range of 3 to 1200 micrometers and provide a new tool for biological oceanography and coastal monitoring. This system will allow researchers to rapidly count, image and size medium and large plankton automatically, instead of with conventional, laboratory intensive methods. Commercial and laboratory flow cytometers available for marine research cover the range of cell sizes from 0.3 to 100 micrometers. This is not sufficient since there are many microbial organisms in the 100 to 1000 micrometer range present in marine and inland waters. Furthermore, these systems do not take images of the measured cells, leaving the user with limited information. The instrument proposed is based on a working prototype and employs cell imaging, digital image processing and fluorescence and scattered light monitoring to analyze marine particles in the size range mentioned above. The proposed system will improve the sensitivity and fluorescence and scattered light triggering of the prototype which has already proven the usefulness of a portable fluorescence triggered imaging system. The instrument is planned for use in several studies, including large phytoplankton grazing and toxicity, harmful algae monitoring, coastal monitoring and the distribution of marine coccoliths.