Author: Julia R Lober,  Undergraduate Student (Tufts University)

Designation: 

Description:
Remotely-sensed satellite ocean color imagery is widely available, but the next generation of hyperspectral sensors will require new approaches and relationships toward estimating phytoplankton composition for complex nearshore environments like the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf. Developing relationships between coincident in situ optical and biological observations are necessary for regionally accurate hyperspectral algorithms. Imaging flow cytometry is a powerful tool for evaluating phytoplankton morphology on larger spatio-temporal scales than is possible by microscopy methods. Continuous flow-through observations of inherent optical properties at hyperspectral resolution and particle imaging from an Imaging flow CytoBot (IFCB) were collected on five NOAA ecosystem monitoring cruises in 2018 and 2019. Phytoplankton absorption spectra are separated from absorption by the colored dissolved organic matter and non-algal particles using a decomposition method and are grouped using fuzzy clustering. Phytoplankton morphology is evaluated through PCA analysis that describes each cell using three primary morphological components. We characterize the variability in the optical signatures associated with contrasting phytoplankton communities in terms of their morphology to highlight potential considerations for improving phytoplankton composition retrievals from hyperspectral satellite imagery.

Category: Scientific Program Abstract > Special Sessions > SS28 Aquatic microbial community structure and dynamics: new insights from non-destructive high throughput automated single-cell analysis.