Limnobotics

The goal of this multi-disciplinary project is to provide unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage of key limnological parameters of Lake Zurich for a better understanding of the mass occurrence and population dynamics of the toxic cyanobacterium P. rubescens. We propose to develop a Autonomous Boat equipped with a variety of sensors (temperature, pH, light, oxygen, nutrients, and algal pigments) to allow for the high-frequency monitoring of cyanobacterial spatiotemporal distribution. In parallel, we will develop and apply methods to rapidly assess the contribution of toxic strains to the P. rubescens population. The boat-generated field data will serve

1. to create a lake basin-wide model of P. rubescens development in the context of physico-chemical parameters and
2. to guide the specific (event-driven) manual sampling campaigns and subsequent laboratory analyses, such as strain typing, gene expression of microcystin production and single-cell detection of microcystin concentration.

This project is a collaboration between the Zurich Limnological Station
from the University of Zurich, and the Autonomous Systems Lab from ETH
Zurich. It will run for 3 years and will provide funding for one PhD at
the ASL and one postdoc at the limnological station.

More information on the biology side of the project can be found on the station project page.

Contact: Dr. C. Pradalier

Measurement path

Example of measurement path recorded by Lizhbeth (our autonomous boat). Later in the project, we intend to be able to post live data on this page. The pictures below give an example of the temperature and oxygen measurements collected on this path.