Abstract
The limited freshwater resources on our planet are being used by a fast growing population. The presence of pollution and toxic substances deteriorates the situation so that millions of people especially in developing countries do not have access to clean freshwater. Chemical analysis of water purity is of limited value since, due to the large number of potentially toxic substances, not even the major classes of chemicals can be tested. One solution for this difficult situation is the use of online computerized image analysis to monitor the behavior of micro- or macroorganisms under the impact of pollutants. This approach warrants error-free and statistically significant results and allows a rapid determination whether a freshwater reservoir, ground water, wastewater or aquatic ecosystem is safe for the biota and human consumption. The advanced hardware and software technologies covered by recent patents and published in major journals allow online monitoring of water samples. Object identification, enumeration of motile versus dead organisms as well as real-time tracking are the major key stones for this technology.
Keywords: Aquatic ecosystems, biomonitoring, Daphnia, daphniatox, ecotox, ecotoxicology, Euglena, freshwater, image analysis, object tracking, pollutants.
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