Portable low-cost autofluorescence analyzer for plankton and plastic detection

Here we present the use of recent Vis and NIR sensor breakout boards for building a low cost, easy to use, portable device, based on open source technology, for the continuous monitoring of the quality of sea water. By means of such device we plan to measure the autofluorescence signal generated by exciting wavelengths in sea water. samples. By the analysis of sensor outputs we test the possibility to differentiate among different water sources and possibly to determine the plankton content and the presence of pollutants. The use of open source devices, developed from off-the-shelf product, and open software is gaining ground for their low-cost and ease of implementation. The current availability of microcontroller units such as Arduino, single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi, and a wide variety o sensors have motivated the realization of a low-cost, low-power, and do-it-yourself (DIY) environmental sensing and data logging devices.