Deploying Imaging FlowCytobot at the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory

The NES-LTER team just returned from a trip to the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO) to deploy the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) to continue the greater than 12 year time series. Undergraduate student Irene Duran (shown in photo next to the IFCB) visited MVCO for the first time. Irene is majoring in Mechatronics Engineering from California State University, Chico, and is sponsored by an NES-LTER Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program (PEP). Her project this summer is titled “Developing a small-sized, low power, inexpensive plankton imaging system.” Irene tweets: “The IFCB10 is 3/4 of me, a crane was required to drop it into the ocean. I’m testing different cameras, starting with a pen scope the size of my hand, one of which will hopefully be integrated into a new, smaller imaging system.”