Simple electric powered plankton wheel for the production of aggregates in seawater on-board ship

Abstract

37-41A new handy plankton wheel was devised for use on-board a ship. Its efficacy to generate aggregates was tested on land using coastal waters. The device successfully generated aggregates of sizes varying up to 11.3 mm2 within eleven days. During an on-board experiment with oceanic water within approximately the same time period, no visible aggregates were observed but the concentration of transparent exopolymeric particles (TEPs) increased from 14.4 to 547.8 mg eq Alginic Acid L-1 indicating successful production of aggregate precursors and requirement of longer incubation periods for the production of visible aggregates with oceanic waters