BS EN 17204 is an international standard that deals with the aspects of maintaining water quality.
BS EN 17204 specifies a procedure for analyzing mesozooplankton in marine and brackish waters. The procedure comprises how to identify and enumerate mesozooplankton to estimate quantitative information on diversity, abundance, and biomass about the spatial distribution and long-term temporal trends for a given body of water.
BS EN 17204 gives you technical specifications such as terms, principles, equipment, preservatives and other chemicals, test procedures, etc., for the analysis of mesozooplankton. It also specifies the reporting and quality assurance for maintaining the water quality.
BS EN 17204 on Analysis of mesozooplankton is useful to:
Mesozooplankton constitute an important part of zooplankton in the pelagic food webs since these are the organisms representing the link between primary producers and higher trophic levels.
BS EN 17204 provides you with guidance on the analysis of mesozooplankton community structure and productivity that can be affected by changes in phytoplankton stocks, species/size composition, and phenology. It further explains that alterations in mesozooplankton can influence prey availability for zooplanktivores and, thus, fish stock recruitment, as well as sedimentation of the primary production. This will affect adversely on food supply to benthic animals and oxygen levels in the bottom water. BS EN 17204 also helps you identify the environmental state of marine and brackish waters through analysis of mesozooplankton.
EN 17204:2019