Turner Designs has designed a Chlorophyll a sensor specifically for integration into the Hydrolab DataSonde. This sensor is based on the CYCLOPS-7 technology, and offers the most accurate Chlorophyll a measurement available on a multi-parameter instrument.

Real-time, in vivo monitoring of Chlorophyll a using a Hydrolab DataSonde is extremely valuable for helping a researcher understand the productivity of a lake. The advantage offered when using a multi-parameter DataSonde with the Chlorophyll sensor is that the researcher can also monitor parameters such as Dissolved Oxygen and pH at the same time as their Chlorophyll measurements. These additional parameters are important to fully understand the productivity of the lake because the amount of oxygen that is being produced or absorbed, as well as the changes in pH that coincide with algal productivity, are critically important to completing the full picture of the lake's health.

Kellie Merrell, an aquatic ecologist at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, has been measuring water quality with Hydrolab instruments for 12 years. The agency routinely monitors water quality at over 200 lakes in the state of Vermont, and they are especially interested in monitoring Chlorophyll.

Kellie has recently started to use the Hydrolab sondes paired with Turner Designs' Chlorophyll a sensor to help the agency understand the trophic status of the lakes and detect bloom conditions real-time. The ability to make in vivo measurements of Chlorophyll can give the agency immediate data to tell them if the lake is experiencing hypereutrophic or oligotrophic conditions. Kellie then uses the data from the other sensors, including Dissolved Oxygen, pH, Conductivity, Redox, and Temperature, to understand the complete picture of the lakes' health.

The agency greatly benefits from the ability to collect data for several parameters at once with only one instrument... the time and equipment savings add up very quickly! Most importantly, the data that the agency collects with the Hydrolab sonde and Turner Chlorophyll sensor correlates extremely well with their extracted Chlorophyll analyses, so they can be sure they are collecting accurate data.