Underwater dual-magnification imaging for automated lake plankton monitoring

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dual-magnification underwater imaging system for automated, in-situ lake plankton monitoring, demonstrating its effectiveness in capturing diverse plankton communities and ecological dynamics with high temporal resolution.

Contribution

The study presents the design, implementation, and validation of the Dual Scripps Plankton Camera (DSPC), a novel system capable of in-situ, real-time imaging of plankton across a wide size range in natural environments.

Findings

DSPC's size and abundance estimates align with traditional microscopy in laboratory tests.

In-field deployment successfully captured plankton diversity and dynamics without disrupting natural behaviors.

The system effectively tracked ecological succession, algal blooms, and diel cycles in a natural lake setting.

Abstract

We present an approach for automated in-situ monitoring of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities based on a dual magnification dark-field imaging microscope/camera. We describe the Dual Scripps Plankton Camera (DSPC) system and associated image processing, and assess its capabilities in detecting and characterizing plankton species of different size and taxonomic categories, and in measuring their abundances in both laboratory and field applications. In the laboratory, body size and abundance estimates by the DSPC significantly and robustly scale with the same measurements derived by traditional microscopy. In the field, a DSPC installed permanently at 3 m depth in Lake Greifensee (Switzerland), delivered images of plankton individuals, colonies, and heterospecific aggregates without disrupting natural arrangements of interacting organisms, their microenvironment or their behavior at hourly timescales. The DSPC was able to track the dynamics of taxa in the size range between ~10 $\mu$m to ~ 1 cm, covering virtually all the components of the planktonic food web (including parasites and potentially toxic cyanobacteria). Comparing data from the field-deployed DSPC to traditional sampling and microscopy revealed a general overall agreement in estimates of plankton diversity and abundances, despite imaging limitations in detecting small phytoplankton species and rare and large zooplankton taxa (e.g. carnivorous zooplankton). The most significant disagreements between traditional methods and the DSPC resided in the measurements of community properties of zooplankton, organisms that are heterogeneously distributed spatially and temporally, and whose demography appeared to be better captured by automated imaging. Time series collected by the DSPC depicted ecological succession patterns, algal bloom dynamics and circadian fluctuations with a temporal frequency and morphological [continues...]