ABSTRACT
The combination of fluorochrome-induced fluorescence and autofluorescence of plant pigments provides a powerful way of characterizing plankton communities using true-color image analysis. This chapter describes the system components and measurement protocols necessary to rapidly and accurately recognize and quantify the abundance and biomass of different trophic components within natural plankton communities. In the simplest sense, image analysis of plankton comprises three basic steps: image rendering and capture, image enhancement, and morphometry. The sequential steps and principles of operation of image analysis applied to plankton studies, in terms of hardware and software. The chapter represents different approaches toward application of image-processing software to determination of plankton biomass. Plankton science, however, does not offer to the imaging industry the investment potential needed to leverage the development of focused software routines specific to determining plankton biomass. Color image analysis provides aquatic science with an improved tool to determine the abundance and biomass of plankton.
