Performance evaluation of in situ fluorometers for real-time cyanobacterial monitoring

Detecting the presence of cyanobacteria is an integral part of maintaining high water quality standards. In situ fluorometers are tools which may allow for the detection of cyanobacteria in real-time but there are few studies that review fluorometer performance. A systematic study that evaluated the performance of a range of fluorometers using key cyanobacterial species of interest and two known sources of interference (green algae and added turbidity) was undertaken. Specifically, six fluorometers and four cyanobacterial species were investigated. A good correlation (R2 ≥ 0.92 and p-value of