State-of-the-art tool for digitization, image analysis and archiving of zooplankton and ichthyoplankton samples

要求为购买水生生态ZooSCAN成像系统提供资金。ZooSCAN是研究现代浮游生物生态学的最先进的工具，它本质上是对保存的生物样本进行照片复制。这些数字图像可以用ZooSCAN软件自动分析，以确定样本中生物的大小以及它们的分类特征。ZooSCAN对各种浮游生物都很有用，从只有0.2毫米大小的桡足类幼体到几厘米大小的鱼卵和幼体。由于ZooSCAN是完全客观和可重复的，它克服了传统浮游生物计数中的人为错误。此外，ZooSCAN图像提供了浮游生物样本的永久存档，使得大量保存样本的存储变得不必要。ZooSCAN目前在20个国家使用。

Funds are requested for the purchase of a ZooSCAN imaging system for aquatic ecology. ZooSCAN is a state-of-the-art tool for modern plankton ecology, which essentially takes a photo copy of preserved biological samples. The digital images can then be automatically analyzed with ZooSCAN software to determine the size of the organisms in the sample as well as their taxonomic identity. ZooSCAN is useful for a broad range of plankton organisms, from the small larval stages of copepods only 0.2 mm in size up to fish eggs and larvae several cm in size. Because ZooSCAN is completely objective and repeatable, it overcomes human error in conventional plankton counting. In addition, ZooSCAN images provide a permanent archive of the plankton samples, making the storage of large volumes of preserved samples unnecessary. ZooSCAN is presently being used in 20 countries.