Biological intercalibration: Invertebrates 2017

The 21th intercalibration of invertebrates in the ICP Waters programme had contribution from four laboratories. The biological intercalibration is important for harmonizing taxonomic work across countries and will be of high value for programmes where community analyses are in focus, such as classification of ecological status according to EU’s Water Framework Directive. The biological intercalibration under the ICP Waters programme was the first regular test comprising identification of organisms down to the level of individual species. The laboratories identified a high proportion of the individuals in the test samples, 89.2 % of the total number of species was correctly identified. Few faults were recorded on genus level. The mean Quality assurance index ranged between 77.4 and 100. Only one laboratory had a value below 80 – the limit for acceptable taxonomic work, while one other laboratory had all identifications correct.