BIOMONITORING
The range of biomonitoring assessments applied by Clean Stream Biological Services include the following:
- Bioassessments that include ecological surveys of the functional and structural aspects of biological communities.
- Toxicity bioassays that involve laboratory-based methodologies to investigate and predict the effect of compounds on test organisms.
- Behavioural bioassays to explore in-stream sub-lethal effects on fish and macro-invertebrates, when exposed to contaminants.
- Fish health studies to provide an accurate indication of overall ecosystem health.
- Bioaccumulation studies that involve investigations into the increase of chemical concentrations in biological organisms over time.
Our services are performed at our permanent offices located in Silver Lakes (Pretoria East, Gauteng Province). Our tests are performed in state-of-the-art environmentally controlled facilities. Controlled laboratory assays are performed and generally involve the exposure of small populations of test organisms covering a number of trophic levels, to potentially affected water or sediment types. The dose-response relationship is then investigated by determining the relationship between the amount of chemical exposure and the degree of toxic response. This approach then facilitates the link of toxic responses of individual test organisms to higher levels of biological organisation.
