The biomonitoring system
ECOTOX

The interest in testing of water and waste water for toxic compounds has increased in the last few years with rising pollutant levels from industry and private households an with a rising sensibility towards environmental problems. As completion to chemical analyses more and more biological test systems are being used. These systems can give information about ecological consequences of pollutants or waste water in aquatic environments.

Euglena gracilis

ECOTOX is a new early warning system for monitoring the quality of surface water using different movement parameters of the motile unicellular flagellate Euglena gracilis as end points. The ability of orienting in the gravity field, the motility and the speed of the cells were found to be sensitive against a number of toxic compounds.

Hardware construction of ECOTOX

The biomonitor is based on a real time image analyzing system. With its help the movement parameters are quantified automatically.

Statistically significant changes in the measured parameters indicate a decrease in the tested water quality. The biomonitoring system works fully automatic and in a very short time. One cycle including a sample and control measurement takes in between 6 to 10 min (depending on the software settings).

Feel free to ask for detailed information, please contact: Christine Streb

Here an comparison between ECOTOX and MICROTOX®.

For further short information you can read this PDF document: ECOTOX Flyer