LifeWatch Belgium: FlowCam sampling and lab protocol for imaging microphytoplankton in the Belgian part of the North Sea
Lagaisse, R. (2024). LifeWatch Belgium: FlowCam sampling and lab protocol for imaging microphytoplankton in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Flanders Marine Institute: Oostende. 10 pp. https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.6qpvr8e6zlmk/v1
In the framework of the Belgian Lifewatch RI, a number of fi xed stations in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS) are visited during mulitdisciplinary campaigns. A grid of nine stations covers the coastal zone and are sampled monthly. Eight additional stations, located more offshore, are sampled on a seasonal basis. For the phytoplankton monitoring, samples are taken using a 55μm mesh size Apstein net, fi xed in Lugol's iodine solution and preserved in dark and refrigerated conditions. In the lab, the samples are processed using a FlowCAM VS-4 benchtop model, equipped with a Sony XCD SC90 digital gray-scale camera and VisualSpreadsheet software version 4.2.52. For the monitoring, the FlowCam device is mounted with the 4X magnifi cation and associated hardware to image a particles size range of 55-300μm. The identifi cation of the images data is done with a CNN and followed by a manual validation step to check each predicated image. Since May 2017, this dataset provides micro- and phytoplankton observations, mainly covering diatoms, dinofl agellates and cilliates, for the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS). This published protocol descibes sampling and lab SOPs in detail.
Dataset
LifeWatch observatory data: phytoplankton observations by FlowCam imaging in the Belgian Part of the North Sea
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