Particle analysis in oceanography

Individual cell and particle analysis in aquatic sciences is involved in many aspects of oceanography and limnology, including optical physics of particles, phytoplankton physiology and ecology, marine and aquatic microbiology and food web interactions. This book concentrates on the optimal utilization of flow cytometry and image analysis and the ways in which oceanographic and limnological problems can be uniquely or better addressed using these techniques. The book stresses the need to work on merging scales in order to increase our understanding of the productivity of aquatic systems and emphasized the use of flow cytometry as a powerful tool for rapidly integrating large amounts of information over a wide range of particle scales. This new approach should help in finding adequate mechanistic solutions to problems of measurement of primary production at small (individual cells).as well as at global scales. Advancement in understanding of the aquatic system appears to be linked to such development. For example, fluorescent oligonucleotide probes recognize specific sequences of ribosomal RNA. Depending of their base composition they can differentiate cells at the kingdom (e.g. eukaryotes vs prokaryotes), group (e.g. sulfate reducing bacteria) or even finer taxonomic levels. This approach appears extremely powerful since probes can be devised to be as specific or as general as needed. Its coupling with flow cytometry will allow assessing in very fine detail the structure of microbial food webs in aquatic environments. These new probes also open up the possibility to better understand how oceanic communities adapt to a changing and unpredictable environment at the genetic level.