CEN/TC 230/WG 27 - Marine ecological methods

This document provides guidance for survey design, equipment specification, survey methods, sampling and data handling of macroalgae and marine angiosperms such as Zostera in the intertidal soft bottom environment. It does not include polyeuryhaline terrestrial angiosperms that are found in saltmarshes. Ruppia is a genus of angiosperms that can be found in brackish water. This document can also be applied to the study of Ruppia in these environments.
The document comprises:
-   development of a mapping and sampling programme;
-   requirements for mapping and sampling equipment;
-   procedures for remote sensing data collection;
-   procedures for direct mapping and sampling in the field;
-   recommendations for taxon identification and biomass determination;
-   data handling.

This document specifies procedures for sampling of mesozooplankton using nets and continuous ribbon-sampling devices in marine and brackish waters for the purpose of water quality assessment and determination of ecological status of ecosystems.
Guidance on sampling procedures and the subsequent steps of preservation and storage are given. The sampling procedures allow estimates of species occurrence and their abundance (relative or absolute), including spatial distribution and seasonal and long-term temporal trends, for a given body of water.
The described methods are restricted to the sampling of mesozooplankton that inhabit marine and brackish waters and exclude the shallow littoral zones which require a different type of sampling (e.g. zooplankton in salt marshes).

This document specifies a procedure for analysing mesozooplankton in marine and brackish waters. The procedure comprises how to identify and enumerate mesozooplankton to estimate quantitative information on diversity, abundance and biomass with regard to spatial distribution and long-term temporal trends for a given body of water.