"Drifting endlessly, midway between the sea of air above and the depths of the abyss below, these strange creatures and the marine inflorescence that sustains them are called 'plankton' — the wanderers" - Rachel Carson
Helping fix 30-50% of the worlds carbon dioxide and providing the foundation of a global food chain, plankton comprise the largest daily movement of biomass in the world as they traverse the oceans. The shapes, colors, and movements of these billions of creatures are as vast as the seas that sustains them. Understanding plankton is crucial to understanding the world around us, and the effect we have on that world. A hurdle for this type of study has been the sheer scale of area to explore, and the limited resources of research fleets and specialized equipment. By developing a way to scale up high quality visual exploration and documentation we can greatly increase our understanding of the complicated web of life around us, and how we are in turn impacting it.
The PlanktoScope is a modular, open-source hardware and software platform that allows for high-throughput quantitative imaging of plankton samples in aquatic biology and ecology. Its small size, ease of use, and low cost make it suitable for deployment in a range of applications, including the monitoring of laboratory cultures or natural micro-plankton communities. It can be controlled from any WiFi-enabled device, and its versatility allows for rapid reconfiguration to match the evolving needs of the user.
PlanktoScope is a completely open platform. The core of the PlanktoScope project is a basis in an evolving network of designers and users collaborating to increase the impact and availability of the tools. Building a community of users will enable PlanktoScope to grow with capabilities not yet imagined.
For around $500, and with parts freely available in most parts of the globe, any person with the desire to engage can begin building a PlanktoScope. This website contains the information needed to assemble, test, and begin collecting data on your PlanktoScope.
The components of the PlanktoScope are available from many vendors, online and otherwise.
Once you have all the components of a PlanktoScope, follow this guide for the assembly that should take a few hours.
Test the focus, the pump, the light and the stream of the Pi Camera over the dashboard deployed by Node-RED.
Built by Dyche Mullins at Mullins Lab - University of California
Built by Nicola White at Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences - University of Liverpool
Built by Guillaume Le Guen at Konk Ar Lab - Le Temps des Sciences and Saint Brieuc Factory
Built by Alex Barth at Department of Biological Sciences - University of South Carolina
Built by Ana Fernandez Carrera at Biological Oceanography - Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde - IOW
Built by Salima Rafai at Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique - CNRS & Université Grenoble Alpes
Feel free to visit the GitHub and engage if you want.
The community is using Slack to communicate.
To join EcoTaxa, you just need to create an account.
Thibaut Pollina
Adam Larson
Ethan Li
David Le Guen
Manu Prakash
Fabien Lombard