Langley, B;
Halloran, P;
Power, A;
Rickaby, R;
Chana, P;
Diver, P;
Thornalley, D;
(2020)
A new method for isolating and analysing coccospheres within sediment.
Scientific Reports
, 10
, Article 20727. 10.1038/s41598-020-77473-5.
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Abstract
Size is a fundamental cellular trait that is important in determining phytoplankton physiological and ecological processes. Fossil coccospheres, the external calcite structure produced by the excretion of interlocking plates by the phytoplankton coccolithophores, can provide a rare window into cell size in the past. Coccospheres are delicate however and are therefore poorly preserved in sediment. We demonstrate a novel technique combining imaging flow cytometry and cross-polarised light (ISX+PL) to rapidly and reliably visually isolate and quantify the morphological characteristics of coccospheres from marine sediment by exploiting their unique optical and morphological properties. Imaging flow cytometry combines the morphological information provided by microscopy with high sample numbers associated with flow cytometry. High throughput imaging overcomes the constraints of labour-intensive manual microscopy and allows statistically robust analysis of morphological features and coccosphere concentration despite low coccosphere concentrations in sediments. Applying this technique to the fine-fraction of sediments, hundreds of coccospheres can be visually isolated quickly with minimal sample preparation. This approach has the potential to enable rapid processing of down-core sediment records and/or high spatial coverage from surface sediments and may prove valuable in investigating the interplay between climate change and coccolithophore physiological/ecological response.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A new method for isolating and analysing coccospheres within sediment |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-020-77473-5 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77473-5 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10116292 |
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