УДОСКОНАЛЕНИЙ МЕТОД ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ ДОЛІ ЖИВИХ ОРГАНІЗМІВ У МОРСЬКОМУ ЗООПЛАНКТОНІ ПІСЛЯ ФАРБУВАННЯ НЕЙТРАЛЬНИМ ЧЕРВОНИМ І ДІАЦЕТАТОМ ФЛУОРЕСЦЕЇНА

In natural zooplankton samples, the intensity of staining specimens with vital dyes varies significantly and, as a result, it is difficult to classify poorly stained organisms exactly to either аlive or dead. If the fraction of the ‘questionable’ organisms in the sample is high, it is impossible to obtain reliable and reproducible results. In this work, a solution of the problem is considered, which is an advanced approach for identifying live/dead organisms in stained samples of mesozooplankton through digitizing their images, averaging their colour (hue) and brightness and, finally, applying discriminant analysis of the colour data obtained for every specimen to classify the latter as live or dead.