Laser damage to marine plankton and its application to checking biofouling and invasion by aquatic species: a laboratory study.
In this laboratory study, the ability of low-power pulsed laser irradiation to kill planktonic organisms in a flowing water system was examined, thus, to test the possibility of using this technique as a water treatment strategy to reduce biofouling growth in condenser tubes of power plants and to reduce bioinvasion via the ballast water of ships. Two flow rates (4.6 and 9.0 l h(-1)) were tested on three planktonic organisms: two marine centric diatoms viz. Skeletonema costatum and Chaetoceros gracilis and a dinoflagellate, Heterocapsa circularisquama. A low-power pulsed laser irradiation at 532 nm with a fluence of 0.1 J cm(-2) from a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser was used as the irradiation source. The laser irradiation resulted in a heavy mortality of the test cells. The mortality observed was >90% for S. costatum and H. circularisqama and >70% for C. gracilis. The results suggest that laser irradiation has the potential to act as a water treatment strategy to reduce biofouling of condenser tubes in power plants as well as to reduce species invasion via the ballast water of ships.
Nandakumar
Kanavillil
K
Marine Eco-Materials Research Group, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Shikoku Marine Resources and Environment Research Institute, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan. nkanavil@lakeheadu.ca
Obika
Hideki
H
Sreekumari
Kurissery
K
Utsumi
Akihiro
A
Ooie
Toshihiko
T
Yano
Tetsuo
T
D017753:Ecosystem; D007834:Lasers; D008386:Marine Biology; D010933:Plankton / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D012767:Ships