Research

Scanning Electron Microscopy of Phytoplankton: Achieving High Quality Images Through the Use of Safer Alternative Chemical Fixatives

Scanning Electron Microscopy of Phytoplankton: Achieving High Quality Images Through the Use of Safer Alternative Chemical Fixatives

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has many applications in the marine sciences field, one of which is proper discrimination between toxic and non-toxic species of phytoplankton. Some key morphological differences between species are often too small to identify without the aid of SEM, and the quality of the images relies heavily on the preservation technique used.