A portable multi-taxa phenotyping device to retrieve physiological performance traits.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Ecology
• Physiology

Background:

• Organismal phenotyping is crucial for understanding species' adaptive responses and ecological interactions in changing environments.
• Current methods for high-throughput phenotyping of aquatic organisms are limited.
• There is a need for integrated tools to assess organismal performance across environmental gradients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present a portable Multi-Taxa Phenotyping (MTP) system for high-throughput organismal phenotyping.
• To integrate imaging Pulse Amplitude Modulated (PAM) chlorophyll a fluorometry, optical oxygen sensing, and thermocycling.
• To demonstrate the MTP system's capability in distinguishing phenotypic performance characteristics of diverse aquatic taxa.

Main Methods:

• The MTP system integrates an imaging PAM chlorophyll a fluorometer, custom well plates with optical oxygen sensors, and a thermocycler.
• Real-time bio-optical measurements of oxygen and chlorophyll a fluorescence are utilized.
• The system allows for controlled manipulation of light, temperature, and chemical gradients.

Main Results:

• The MTP system successfully distinguished phenotypic performance characteristics of corals, mangroves, and algae.
• Metabolic parameters and Photosystem II dynamics were effectively measured across environmental gradients.
• The system demonstrated high-throughput capacity and accounted for interactions between environmental gradients.

Conclusions:

• The MTP system provides valuable metrics on aquatic taxa performance under environmental stress.
• Extracted metrics can predict phenotypic responses of key aquatic organisms to environmental change.
• Further in situ validation is needed to confirm the predictive power of rapid phenotyping tools for long-term environmental changes and inform management strategies.