For the first time, researchers can watch the lives of microplankton at the individual level using holograms produced in digital microscopes and analysed using artificial intelligence (AI). An interdisciplinary research initiative at the University of Gothenburg produced the approach. Plankton is among the most significant creatures on the planet. Phytoplankton in the seas creates more than half of the world’s oxygen. Despite this, information about these lifeforms is limited, owing mostly to their small size.
“Previously, I had to examine microplankton at the group level, but now I can watch how individual microplanktons move, feed, develop, and reproduce,” explains Erik Selander, a marine scientist at the University of Gothenburg.
Individual microplankton may only be studied in this manner.
Erik Selander heard Giovanni Volpe, a University Professor of Physics, speak about a novel approach in which light refracted through a particle generates a hologram that can be analysed instead of the particle at a recent conference. The holograms may be studied at much quicker rates using AI, delivering more and finer information. Selander and Volpe then began an interdisciplinary effort focused on microplankton.
“In the case of bigger species like animals and birds that we see every day, we have a solid idea of who eats who and where they go. Our technology is the only one that works for studying tiny creatures at the individual level “Giovanni Volpe states
AI speeds up the process significantly.
The approach analyses microplankton in holographic microscopes using LED light, which assures that the organisms are not harmed throughout the procedure. This finding was published in the journal eLife.
“We are looking at microplankton cells that are barely a few hundredths of a millimetre in size. However, they are so abundant that they have an impact on the whole carbon cycle of the ocean. Single-cell microplankton absorbs around three times the amount of carbon that people release from fossil fuels. We may now have a thorough grasp of these processes at the individual level “Erik Selander says
The approach of capturing light-matter interaction using digital cameras and a holographic microscope has already been widely investigated. However, owing to digital technology and the current AI revolution, this approach is significantly more helpful, and analysis is a lot quicker and faster.
“We can now monitor what is occurring with a vast collection of microplankton cells at a single cell level by combining holographic microscopy with AI, which was previously impossible. Though the process was shown using marine microbes, the concept is extremely general and may be used to any tiny lifeform “says Harshith Bachimanchi, a physics doctorate student at the University of Gothenburg.
“And by confining the cells in miniatured glass wells, we can track the growth dynamics and swimming behaviours of cells from hours to days,” says the researcher. Holographic microscopy is also a quick and economical way to count, weigh, and size cells or other particles in a solution.
