Now that you are an expert in limnology… you’re ready to go to the field and demonstrate it!
During the first river sampling, you’ll be taking samples of the water. Some parameters will be measured there (in situ measurements), but others will be measured later in the lab. In this case, don’t forget to keep the samples frozen until the analysis.
In the second river sampling, you’ll be taking samples of the flora. During the field work, you need to collect samples of both the riparian vegetation (leaves) and the algal community (by scrapping 2 cobble surfaces with a knife). Remember to keep the leaves in the fridge and to add some water and formaldehid in the algae samples in order to preserve them.
The last sampling will be for collecting macroinvertebrates and observing other river animals. Macroinvertebrate samples will be fixed with formaldehid, as you did with algae.
Here you have a field sampling sheet. You can print it out and take it with you the day of the river sampling.