What is BS EN 17136 about?
BS EN 17136 provides guidelines for identifying and estimating macroinvertebrates in samples of inland waters.
The best practices outlined in BS EN 17136 for identifying macroinvertebrates from inland surface waters deals with pre-treatment (cleaning), sub-sampling, sorting, and final identification of organisms from preserved and unpreserved samples originating from natural habitats or artificial substrates and their transport to the laboratory. Specific guidance is also given for preservation for DNA-analysis.
Who is BS EN 17136 for?
BS EN 17136 on identifying macroinvertebrates from inland surface waters is useful for:
- Research laboratories
- Doctors
- Botanists
- Marine Biologists
Why should you use BS EN 17136?
Macroinvertebrates are important in water quality assessment and form one of the biological quality elements in the EC Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/EC).
Macroinvertebrates are a very diverse group of organisms for which an efficient and effective procedure for analysis is not always obvious. Their large size range, very different appearances and the diverse range of habitats they live in produce specific problems for collecting and analysis.
BS EN 17136 on identifying macroinvertebrates from inland surface aims to provide a general procedure for the quantitative analysis of macroinvertebrate samples for the WFD in particular, and scientific studies in general. It is not intended to give a full and exact overview of all possible methods.
It outlines a pre-treatment procedure to eliminate irregularities occurring during the sorting of macroinvertebrates. This supports the identification of new macroinvertebrate species in inland surface waters.
Although specific situations and investigation objectives may require adjustments to the outlined procedure the general principles given in BS EN 17136 should still be valid
