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September 17, 2006      

Contents:

 A selection of tests performed by laboratories

 Phosphorus species and caution
 Chlorophyll a (Cha)
 Secchi disk (SD)
 Sampling modus operandi for standard limnological investigations (OECD)

 Statistical tools

 List of Periodic Table Elements Sorted by Element Name

 Narrative on water quality

The need to use accredited laboratories

1. The need to use laboratories accredited by the Standards Council of Canada, a federal Crown corporation; accredited laboratories in Canada, and the list of registered tests that each lab has undergone proficiency testing for!
2. Policy on the Accreditation of Laboratories-- Nova Scotia Dept. of Environment & Labour

 Phosphorus species  

• A note of caution: In freshwaters, it is important that TP is measured to one (1) µg/l (i.e., 1 microgram/litre) sensitivity. Indeed, we also understand there are some leading research laboratories elsewhere in North America and Western Europe which can analyze TP to even higher sensitivity, e.g., 0.25 µg/l!
• We place the above caution especially since a significant number of monitoring conducted by various consultants and submitted to the HRM has been woefully inadequate from a limnological perspective. Over a whole decade or longer, many TP values had been reported as, for e.g., < 0.1 mg/l (i.e., < 100 µg/l) or sometimes as 0.02 or 0.03 mg/l which are of little value in any authentic limnological assessment. Hence, we request all field samplers, e.g., engineers, ecologists, biologists to consult us and/or other limnologists for further clarification and scientific rationale, if needed. The proper way of reporting is, as an example, 0.023 mg/l (or 23 µg/l).
• Phosphorus analytical inaccuracies!

• Caution re overestimation of Phosphate by orders of magnitude!

Statistical tools

 Correspondence Analysis, StatSoft, Inc.

 Multidimensional Scaling, StatSoft, Inc.

 Multivariate Statistics

 Ordination-related terms

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