Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Funds are requested for the purchase of a ZooSCAN imaging system for aquatic ecology. ZooSCAN is a state-of-the-art tool for modern plankton ecology, which essentially takes a photo copy of preserved biological samples. The digital images can then be automatically analyzed with ZooSCAN software to determine the size of the organisms in the sample as well as their taxonomic identity. ZooSCAN is useful for a broad range of plankton organisms, from the small larval stages of copepods only 0.2 mm in size up to fish eggs and larvae several cm in size. Because ZooSCAN is completely objective and repeatable, it overcomes human error in conventional plankton counting. In addition, ZooSCAN images provide a permanent archive of the plankton samples, making the storage of large volumes of preserved samples unnecessary. ZooSCAN is presently being used in 20 countries. Zooplankton are important in all oceans on earth. They form the first consumer level of marine food chains, eating the phytoplankton that are the 'grass' of the sea, and themselves serve as food for larger organisms, such as commercially important fish, shellfish and marine mammals. Zooplankton include important larval dispersal stages of shellfish and fish. The response of zooplankton to global change is therefore of crucial importance to human economies and social institutions that depend upon the sea. The research supported by ZooSCAN will enable us to deepen our understanding of zooplankton and fish larval abundance, distribution and biodiversity in Newfoundland coastal waters and the Canadian Arctic Ocean. These results will contribute new knowledge to be released in the form of scientific papers, new data for computer simulation models predicting the response of ocean ecosystems to climate change, as well as images for education of university students and the general public. All of these advances will benefit Canadian society in terms of furthering our understanding of the mechanisms that regulate productivity and its sustainability in Canadian coastal waters.