Presenter: Turner Designs
Lawrence Younan, Senior Applications Scientist at Turner Designs
Algal blooms are typically characterized during peak bloom conditions via sample collection and lab analyses utilizing High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), microscopy, PCR and DNA sequencing, or other techniques all of which can be tedious, costly, and time consuming. Technological advances have led to the development of various in vivo fluorometers for detecting fluorescence from specific marker pigments characteristic of certain algal groups. In stand-alone mode specific in vivo fluorometers are generally used for qualitative studies looking at relative abundance of a certain algal group. However, when calibrated and used in combination with other specific wavelength fluorometers, deconvolution algorithms can be applied enabling the ability to estimate algal group concentrations, thereby characterizing algal groups in mixed algal populations through bloom conditions. PhytoFind uses three specific in vivo fluorometers to distinguish among three algal groups denoted as Cyanobacteria, Mixed, and Green-Brown algae. Interference from dissolved organics can be a significant factor when accurately estimating algal group contributions which is why PhytoFind has an onboard algorithm for automatically correcting interference from DOM. With its high resolution data this in situ fluorescence monitor can greatly aid characterization efforts by providing information on dominant algal constituents from pre to post bloom conditions.