Benchtop Fluorometry of Phycocyanin as a Rapid Approach for Estimating Cyanobacterial Biovolume

Turner Designs’ Trilogy Fluorometer can efficiently and accurately quantify cyanobacterial biovolume, which has long been considered a major problem for water resource managers plagued with harmful algal blooms.  Using a simple extraction process, cyanobacterial abundance can be dependably estimated from measurements of the pigment, phycocyanin, the same day as sample collection.  In this way rapid responses to potential water quality threats posed by cyanobacteria are possible.

A link to the abstract can be found here
http://plankt.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/1/248.abstract

Alan Wilson - Program Director at the National Science Foundation & Associate Professor in the School of Fisheries at Auburn University – http://www.wilsonlab.com

 
Photo of an algal bloom in an aquaculture pond provided by Alan Wilson.