Original data for study: Rapid quantification of microalgae with hyperspectral camera and vegetation indices

Spectral cameras are traditionally used in remote sensing of microalgae but increasingly also in laboratory-scale applications to study and monitor algae biomass in cultures. Practical and cost-efficient protocols for collecting and analyzing hyperspectral data are currently needed. The purpose of this study was to test a commercial, easy-to-use hyperspectral camera to monitor the growth of different algae strains in liquid samples. Indices calculated from wavebands from transmission imaging were compared against algae abundance and wet biomass obtained from an electronic cell counter, chlorophyll a concentration and chlorophyll fluorescence. A ratio of selected wavebands containing near infrared and red turned out to be a powerful index because it was simple to calculate and interpret, yet it yielded strong correlations to abundances strain-specifically. When all the indices formulated as A/B, A/(A+B) or (A-B)/(A+B), where A and B were wavebands of the spectral camera, were scrutinized, strong correlations were found amongst them for biomass of each strain. Comparison of near infrared/red index to chlorophyll a concentration demonstrated that small-celled strains had higher chlorophyll absorbance compared to strains with larger cells. The comparison of spectral imaging to chlorophyll fluorescence was done for one strain of green algae and yielded strong correlation. Consequently, we described a simple imaging setup and information extraction based on vegetation indices that could be used in monitoring of algae cultures.