The OOIFB is pleased to support a 4-part webinar series focused on the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB), an submersible imaging flow cytometer that uses a combination of video and flow cytometric technology to capture images of microscopic, aquatic organisms for identification and to measure chlorophyll fluorescence and light scattering associated with each image. An IFCB is currently deployed on the central surface mooring as part of the Coastal Pioneer Mid-Atlantic Bight Array, and data is available for research and educational purposes. IFCBs are also integral to other observing systems and platforms, and may be added to other U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) arrays in the future.
The 2024 OOIFB Pioneer Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) Array Community Workshop brought together scientists, resource managers, educators, and other interested parties to learn about the capabilities of the newly relocated Pioneer Array. The workshop generated interest in new instrumentation, including plankton imaging with the IFCB on the Pioneer MAB array. A focus group took place in June 2025 to further discuss the capabilities of the IFCB, its data interfaces, and research that
has been completed using this tool. OOI-IFCB data workflows were reviewed and roundtable discussions between participants and the OOI program managers reviewed (IFCB) community needs for data and potential usage, as well as OOI expectations for the IFCB community. A suite of goals and outputs were produced as part of the focus group, one of which was hosting a webinar series for the broad, IFCB Community to highlight and discuss different IFCB uses and integration within other platforms. The goals of this webinar series are to:
- Engage and further develop the international IFCB community; and
- Inspire and assist with efforts progressing IFCB data collection and analysis, teaching, incorporation with other types of data collection.
2026 IFCB Webinar Series Schedule:
- Webinar #1 (March 20, 2026): ImagingFlow Cytobot (IFCB) Introduction and Overview of Best Practices.
- Tom Fougere, McLane Research Laboratories
- Dr. Sophie Clayton, National Oceanography Centre (NOC)
Registration is required. To register for Webinar #1, please go here.
- Webinar #2 (May or June 2026): Time/Moored based IFCBs
- Webinar #3 (Fall, Month TBD): Space/ship based IFCBs
- Webinar #4 (Fall, Month TBD): Experiments and lab-based studies
All webinars will be recorded and then posted as an archive to this website.
McLane Research Laboratories maintains an IFCB User Group. Potential users were looking for ways to ask questions, share results, and provide a community of practice for OOI’s IFCB data are also encouraged to join the OOI’s community forum on Discourse.