In situ Measurements of Phytoplankton Fluorescence Using Low Cost Electronics

Abstract

Chlorophyll a fluorometry has long been used as a method to study phytoplankton in the ocean. In situ fluorometry is used frequently in oceanography to provide depth-resolved estimates of phytoplankton biomass. However, the high price of commercially manufactured in situ fluorometers has made them unavailable to some individuals and institutions. Presented here is an investigation into building an in situ fluorometer using low cost electronics. The goal was to construct an easily reproducible in situ fluorometer from simple and widely available electronic components. The simplicity and modest cost of the sensor makes it valuable to students and professionals alike. Open source sharing of architecture and software will allow students to reconstruct and customize the sensor on a small budget. Research applications that require numerous in situ fluorometers or expendable fluorometers can also benefit from this study. The sensor costs US$150.00 and can be constructed with little to no previous experience. The sensor uses a blue LED to excite chlorophyll a and measures fluorescence using a silicon photodiode. The sensor is controlled by an Arduino microcontroller that also serves as a data logger.

Development of an Arduino Based Fish Counter Prototype for European Eel (Anguilla anguilla L.)

“…Some studies were used Arduino as a data logger and LDR sensors (Leeuw, Boss, & Wright, 2013;Maranhao, Brito, Leal, Fonseca, & Macedo, 2015). Different projects were conducted with this board in various fields like biology, environmental sciences, chemistry, physics and others (Benavides et al, 2015;England et al, 2017;Kanaparthi & Badhulika, 2017;Lockridge, Dzwonkowski, Nelson, & Powers, 2016;Swain & Palai, 2016).…”

A Review of the Tools Used for Marine Monitoring in the UK: Combining Historic and Contemporary Methods with Modeling and Socioeconomics to Fulfill Legislative Needs and Scientific Ambitions

“…Considerations of power requirements, size, weight and degree of autonomy typically determine which platforms the sensors may be deployed on. Recent developments in smaller and cheaper electronic components has enabled low-cost sensors to be developed, including for the marine environment, to measure parameters such as chlorophyll fluorescence, turbidity, pH, temperature and salinity (Radu et al, 2010;Leeuw et al, 2013;Murphy et al, 2015;Sendra et al, 2015). Given sufficient stability and sensitivity, these have the potential to be incorporated into monitoring programmes where appropriate.…”

Expanding Aquatic Observations through Recreation

“…With a push toward environmental sensors becoming smaller and cheaper, there is scope to expand the range of environmental indicators that could be measured, for instance, phytoplankton fluorescence (Leeuw et al, 2013;Zeng and Li, 2015), light attenuation (Bardaji et al, 2016), water color (Busch et al, 2016a), pH and oxygen (Larsen et al, 2011). Sensor developments for monitoring nutrient concentrations (Beaton et al, 2011) and toxic pollutants (Lafleur et al, 2010) may one day be feasible from such platforms.…”

“…Sensor developments for monitoring nutrient concentrations (Beaton et al, 2011) and toxic pollutants (Lafleur et al, 2010) may one day be feasible from such platforms. New manufacturing techniques, including 3D printers (Mohammed, 2016), small low cost electronics (Leeuw et al, 2013) 5 , embedded computing (Williams et al, 2014) 6 and mobile phones (Friedrichs et al, 2017) are expanding possibilities further. With growing developments in wireless sensor networks (Albaladejo et al, 2010), cloud data storage, and visualization (Müller et al, 2016), the feasibility of harnessing recreational sports for aquatic monitoring is increasing.…”