Monitoring Program Design - Coastal Lagoons: Ecosystem Processes and Modeling for Sustainable Use and Development - page 312

range should be diluted. High levels of organic or particulate matter may introduce
bias into results.
For contamination by harmful substances in water, biota, and sediment, the
following parameters are usually determined:

• Trace metals (mercury, cadmium, copper, chromium, zinc)
• Pesticides, particularly chlorinated compounds such as dichlorodiphenylo-
trichloroethane (DDT), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), and hexachloro-
cydobenzene (HCB)
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
• Petroleum hydrocarbons (total hydrocarbons: PAHs)

Methodology is provided in various guidelines and specialized papers, although
preference is given to ICES development and existing guidelines, e.g., the Helsinki
Commission (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission), HELCOM 8
and/or OSPAR. 9 These guidelines have been developed for marine areas and include
very useful precise measurement schemes, including sampling, sample preservation,
sample pretreatment, and instrumental measurements. These guidelines can be used
for measuring chemical parameters in lagoons, however, with some modifications
because of specific conditions of the lagoon.

7.2.4 M ONITORING FOR B IOLOGICAL P ARAMETERS

Biological parameters will depend on the specifics of the monitoring program. In
the case of eutrophication, the following parameters are usually included:

• Primary production
• Chlorophyll a
• Phytoplankton (species composition and biomass)
• Zooplankton (species composition and biomass)
• Macrophytes (depth range, species composition, and biomass)
• Macrozoobenthos (species composition and biomass)
• Ichthyiofauna

Similar to other monitoring parameters, biological determinants should be espe-
cially well calibrated and agreed upon by participants. This is usually done through
workshops where methodology and equipment are agreed upon.
Workshops on taxonomic determinations are under way in various international
commissions. They are currently involved in unifying monitoring approaches. Guide-
lines are available for many monitoring programs, although none is comprehensive
(e.g., HELCOM, 8 OSPAR, 9 JAMP, and COMBINE).
Various sampling equipment is adopted for monitoring phytoplankton, zooplankton,
and zoobenthos. This is usually calibrated within one monitoring program, i.e., using
the same mesh size, counting methods, etc. The intermingling of freshwater and marine
organisms in samples originating from brackish lagoons may cause difficulties in lab-
oratories, which may have capabilities in one or the other type of organism, but not
both. Likewise, samples from hypersaline waters may contain organisms that are not