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(89-01) Biological Effects Quality Assurance in Monitoring Programmes (BEQUALM): An overview. Allen, Yvonne*,1, Waldock, Mike1, Thain, John1, Hylland, Ketil2, Balk, Lennart3, Davies, Ian4, Lowe, David5, Feist, Steve6, Colijn, Franciscus7, Rumhor, Heye8, 1 Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Burnham Laboratory, Remembrance Avenue, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex , UK2 Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Oslo, Norway3 Institute of Applied Environment Research, Stockholm, Sweden4 FRS Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, UK5 NERC PLymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK6 CEFAS, Weymouth Laboratory, Weymouth, Dorset, UK7 Forschungs- und Technologie Zentrum, Westküste, Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, Büsum, Germany8 Institut für Meereskunde, Kiel, Germany ABSTRACT- The BEQUALM project was initiated in 1998 and is funded by the European Union through the Standards, Measurements and Testing programme of the European Commission. Its purpose is to develop quality assurance and control procedures for marine biological effects measurements in order that laboratories contributing to international marine monitoring programmes, such as the unified OSPAR Joint Assessment and Monitoring Programme, can attain defined quality standards. The ultimate aims are to produce an agreed set of protocols for biological methods used in marine monitoring, a conformity on acceptable limits of variation, a system for monitoring the output of Participating Laboratories and assessing their compliance with appropriate quality standards, and to develop a QA system which is self-financing on the basis of fees recovered from participants. There is close collaboration with the parallel programme QUASIMEME which deals with quality issues in marine chemistry. Nine project partners, all of which are expert laboratories in particular biological effects monitoring techniques, have organised a series of intercalibration exercises and training workshops. The work areas are: water and sediment bioassays, metallothioein measurement, ALA-D activity, DNA adduct measurement, P4501A activity, imposex/intersex measurement, lysosomal stability, liver histopathology and external disease measurement, chlorophyll-a and phytoplankton assemblage analysis and benthic community analysis. This paper gives an overview of the BEQUALM research programme, with particular emphasis on the water and sediment bioassay workpackage, and describes the model to be implemented when BEQUALM becomes a self- funding QA system. Key words: quality assurance, biological effects, marine monitoring |
