Implementation of continuous flow cytometry for high resolution mapping of microbial distributions in surface waters

PI申请资金用于完成仪器的开发，该仪器可以对地表水中的微生物（自养和异养）群落进行连续的高分辨率测绘。根据这一建议，他们建议将SeaFlow过渡到最后的开发阶段，在R/V Thompson上永久安装和操作，只需要最少的船上海事技术人员的支持。该仪器将建立在海底光学和流体学的基础上，并将成为第一个连续测量地表水中异养微生物分布的仪器。他们还将开发一个协作数据处理、管理和分析平台，以便在巡航期间和之后，对我们在船上和岸上快速扩展的数据集进行可扩展的交互式分析。更广泛的影响：该提案的成功结果可能会开创流式细胞术在机会船和研究游轮上的常规使用，在这些地方没有该技术的专家。采样频率和范围的增加，以及数据获取的拟议便利性，可能会激发更广泛的海洋学界对海洋微生物生态学的兴趣。拟议的研究将直接为本科生和博士后研究人员提供很大的培训机会，并可能包括研究生的一些实时测试和反馈。这个项目绝对是跨学科的，吸引了来自不同学科的本科生。

The PI's request funding to complete the development of instrumentation that allows continuous high-resolution mapping of microbial (both autotrophic and heterotrophic) communities in surface waters. With this proposal they propose to transition SeaFlow into the final development stage where it will be permanently installed and operated on the R/V Thompson, requiring minimal support of shipboard marine technicians. This instrument will build upon SeaFlow optics and fluidics and will be the first instrument to continuously measure the distribution of heterotrophic microbes in surface waters. They will also develop a collaborative data processing, management and analysis platform to allow scalable, interactive analysis of our rapidly expanding data sets both on-vessel and on-shore, during and after the cruise. Broader Impacts: A successful outcome from this proposal could pioneer the routine use of flow cytometry on ships of opportunity and on research cruises where a specialist in this technique was not present. The increased frequency and coverage of sampling, and the proposed ease of access to the data, is likely to stimulate interest in marine microbial ecology in the wider oceanographic community. The proposed research will provide great training opportunities for undergraduates and post doctoral researchers directly and will presumably include graduate students in some of the real time testing and feedback. This project is definitely interdisciplinary and pulls in undergraduates from different disciplines.