Abstract
Several phytoplankton species produce toxins that may cause harmful cascading effects on biological communities, with negative consequences to public health and economic activities. Phytoplankton monitoring techniques are in high demand for studying marine ecosystems as part of a suite of strategies to understand, prevent and mitigate impacts.
Current analysis methodologies as High performance liquid chromatography , Spectrophotometry, Fluorometry or Light scattering are Complex and need expensive instrumentation, need sample pretreatment, are time-consuming and are only suitable for measurement in laboratory.
We propose the development of an automated lab-on-chip for phytoplankton identification:
Reliable and fast cell count and classification; Portable and autonomous platforms; Integration with optoelectronic sensors; Low-cost; Easy operation; Potential for in-situ underwater detection.
It was demonstrated that microfluidic flow cytometry can be used.
Lab-on-a-chip provide rapid, simultaneous and quantitative analysis of multiple optical properties of individual cell of phytoplankton population;
The system measure the fluorescent properties of cells as they pass along a microfluidic channels;
In addition, the scattering signal provide information on particle size and shape