ALGcontrol and fluorescence excitation
The ALGcontrol makes use of fluorescence excitation. This means that when chlorophyll molecules absorb light, a fraction of the energy absorbed is remitted as fluorescence. Due to the fact that algae of the same class contains a similar quantity and quality of pigments, their fluorescence excitation spectrum (with a fixed emission wavelength at 680nm) is significant. Thus, it is possible to differentiate classes of algae by their fluorescence excitation spectrum.
Other fluorescing matter (for example, DOM = dissolved organic matters measured with the 365nm wavelength and turbidity, measured with the 710nm wavelength) are detected to enhance the accuracy of the ALGcontrol.
The ALGcontrol can detect 5 classes of Algae:
- Green
- Blue (cyanobacteria, phycocyanin),
- Brown (diatoms and dinoflagellates)
- Red algae (incl. crypto)
- Total chlorophyll.
The ALGcontrol can also be integrated into the TOXcontrol to have algae and toxicity monitoring in one sample.