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Imaging Technologies Build Capacity and Accessibility in Phytoplankton Species Identification Expertise for Research and Monitoring: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As primary producers, phytoplankton play an integral role in global biogeochemical cycles through their production of oxygen and fixation of carbon. They also provide significant ecosystem services, by supporting secondary production and fisheries. Phytoplankton biomass and diversity have been ident...

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Autores principales: Clayton, Sophie, Gibala-Smith, Leah, Mogatas, Kathryn, Flores-Vargas, Chanel, Marciniak, Kayla, Wigginton, Maci, Mulholland, Margaret R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9048821/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35495707
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.823109
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author Clayton, Sophie
Gibala-Smith, Leah
Mogatas, Kathryn
Flores-Vargas, Chanel
Marciniak, Kayla
Wigginton, Maci
Mulholland, Margaret R.
author_facet Clayton, Sophie
Gibala-Smith, Leah
Mogatas, Kathryn
Flores-Vargas, Chanel
Marciniak, Kayla
Wigginton, Maci
Mulholland, Margaret R.
author_sort Clayton, Sophie
collection PubMed
description As primary producers, phytoplankton play an integral role in global biogeochemical cycles through their production of oxygen and fixation of carbon. They also provide significant ecosystem services, by supporting secondary production and fisheries. Phytoplankton biomass and diversity have been identified by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) as Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), properties that need to be monitored to better understand and predict the ocean system. Phytoplankton identification and enumeration relies on the skills and expertise of highly trained taxonomic analysts. The training of new taxonomic analysts is intensive and requires months to years of supervised training before an analyst is able to independently and consistently apply identification skills to a sample. During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to laboratories was greatly restricted and social distancing requirements prevented supervised training. However, access to phytoplankton imaging technologies such as the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB), FlowCam, and PlanktoScope, combined with open online taxonomic identification platforms such as EcoTaxa, provided a means to continue monitoring, research, and training activities remotely when in-person activities were restricted. Although such technologies can not entirely replace microscopy, they have a great potential for supporting an expansion in taxonomic training, monitoring, surveillance, and research capacity. In this paper we highlight a set of imaging and collaboration tools and describe how they were leveraged during laboratory lockdowns to advance research and monitoring goals. Anecdotally, we found that the use of imaging tools accelerated the training of new taxonomic analysts in our phytoplankton analysis laboratory. Based on these experiences, we outline how these technologies can be used to increase capacity in taxonomic training and expertise, as well as how they can be used more broadly to expand research opportunities and capacity.
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spelling pubmed-90488212022-04-29 Imaging Technologies Build Capacity and Accessibility in Phytoplankton Species Identification Expertise for Research and Monitoring: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic Clayton, Sophie Gibala-Smith, Leah Mogatas, Kathryn Flores-Vargas, Chanel Marciniak, Kayla Wigginton, Maci Mulholland, Margaret R. Front Microbiol Microbiology As primary producers, phytoplankton play an integral role in global biogeochemical cycles through their production of oxygen and fixation of carbon. They also provide significant ecosystem services, by supporting secondary production and fisheries. Phytoplankton biomass and diversity have been identified by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) as Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), properties that need to be monitored to better understand and predict the ocean system. Phytoplankton identification and enumeration relies on the skills and expertise of highly trained taxonomic analysts. The training of new taxonomic analysts is intensive and requires months to years of supervised training before an analyst is able to independently and consistently apply identification skills to a sample. During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to laboratories was greatly restricted and social distancing requirements prevented supervised training. However, access to phytoplankton imaging technologies such as the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB), FlowCam, and PlanktoScope, combined with open online taxonomic identification platforms such as EcoTaxa, provided a means to continue monitoring, research, and training activities remotely when in-person activities were restricted. Although such technologies can not entirely replace microscopy, they have a great potential for supporting an expansion in taxonomic training, monitoring, surveillance, and research capacity. In this paper we highlight a set of imaging and collaboration tools and describe how they were leveraged during laboratory lockdowns to advance research and monitoring goals. Anecdotally, we found that the use of imaging tools accelerated the training of new taxonomic analysts in our phytoplankton analysis laboratory. Based on these experiences, we outline how these technologies can be used to increase capacity in taxonomic training and expertise, as well as how they can be used more broadly to expand research opportunities and capacity. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-04-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9048821/ /pubmed/35495707 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.823109 Text en Copyright © 2022 Clayton, Gibala-Smith, Mogatas, Flores-Vargas, Marciniak, Wigginton and Mulholland. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Clayton, Sophie
Gibala-Smith, Leah
Mogatas, Kathryn
Flores-Vargas, Chanel
Marciniak, Kayla
Wigginton, Maci
Mulholland, Margaret R.
Imaging Technologies Build Capacity and Accessibility in Phytoplankton Species Identification Expertise for Research and Monitoring: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Imaging Technologies Build Capacity and Accessibility in Phytoplankton Species Identification Expertise for Research and Monitoring: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Imaging Technologies Build Capacity and Accessibility in Phytoplankton Species Identification Expertise for Research and Monitoring: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Imaging Technologies Build Capacity and Accessibility in Phytoplankton Species Identification Expertise for Research and Monitoring: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Imaging Technologies Build Capacity and Accessibility in Phytoplankton Species Identification Expertise for Research and Monitoring: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Imaging Technologies Build Capacity and Accessibility in Phytoplankton Species Identification Expertise for Research and Monitoring: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort imaging technologies build capacity and accessibility in phytoplankton species identification expertise for research and monitoring: lessons learned during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9048821/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35495707
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.823109
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