Operation

Applications

Measurement of benthic algae on sand, stone and in very shallow water.

Operation

The BenthoFluor is housed in a watertight, carbon-fibre reinforced case and, during use, is transported in the supplied backpack or placed in a small boat.

The light irradiation and subsequent fluorescence are transmitted along a 1.5 m fibre-optic cable to the submersible adapter. Different sensor heads are used for different surfaces.

The sensor heads ensure a constant distance between the sediment and the fibre-optic cable, and thus a constant intensity of excitation light; they exclude ambient light enabling "adaptation to darkness", and prevent disturbance of the sediment layers.

The unit can be controlled via a small hand-held waterproof PC (PDA).

The chlorophyll-a content is displayed in real time within a range of 0-3 µg/cm². Up to three algae classes are measured simultaneously. All data are recorded on the display of the PDA or stored in the datalogger of the BenthoFluor for further analysis.

The ability to obtain and evaluate the results on site, i.e. at the place of measurement, makes the BenthoFluor a valuable tool in benthic algae analysis.

The BenthoFluor kit comes with bbe++ software for use with Windows for analysis, display and saving of data.

The bbe FluoroProbe with BenthoFluor kit is calibrated using standardised algae from laboratory cultures, but also permits the calibration of user-defined algae classes.