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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2022

3D-Printed Fluorescence Hyperspectral Lidar for Monitoring Tagged Insects

Manefjord, Hampus; Muller, Lauro; Li, Meng; Salvador, Jacobo; Blomqvist, Sofia; Runemark, Anna; Kirkeby, Carsten; Ignell, Rickard; Bood, Joakim; Brydegaard, Mikkel

Abstract

Insects play crucial roles in ecosystems, and how they disperse within their habitat has significant implications for our daily life. Examples include foraging ranges for pollinators, as well as the spread of disease vectors and pests. Despite technological advances with radio tags, isotopes, and genetic sequencing, insect dispersal and migration range remain challenging to study. The gold standard method of mark-recapture is tedious and inefficient. This paper demonstrates the construction of a compact, inexpensive hyperspectral fluorescence lidar. The system is based on off-the-shelf components and 3D printing. After evaluating the performance of the instrument in the laboratory, we demonstrate its efficient range-resolved fluorescence spectra in situ. We present daytime remote ranging and fluorescent identification of auto-powder-tagged honey bees. We also showcase range-, temporally- and spectrally-resolved free-flying mosquitoes, which were tagged through feeding on fluorescent-dyed sugar water. We conclude that violet light can efficiently excite administered sugar meals imbibed by flying insects. Our field experiences provide realistic expectations of signal-to-noise levels, which can be used in future studies. The technique is generally applicable and can efficiently monitor several tagged insect groups in parallel for comparative ecological analysis. This technique opens up a range of ecological experiments, which were previously unfeasible.

Keywords

Laser radar; Insects; Hyperspectral imaging; Fluorescence; Laser beams; Optical receivers; Instruments; Laser radar; fluorescence; hyperspectral sensors; remote sensing; environmental monitoring; instrumentation; ecology; pollination; disease vectors

Published in

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
2022, Volume: 28, number: 5, article number: 7100109
Publisher: IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Ecology

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTQE.2022.3162417

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/116896