Manual for the Nordic Countries
NORDIC ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIMEN BANKING
- methods in use in ESB
Under the authority of the Nordic Council of Ministers and their Working Group for Environmental Monitoring, a project for co-ordination of environmental specimen banking in the Nordic countries started in 1991. Originally, the project concerned the established and planned central ESBs in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. In 1993, representatives from Iceland and Greenland joined the Project Group. The project aimed at co-ordination and harmonising of procedures and methods used in specimen banking as e.g., collection of specimens, transport, preparation and storage in order to increase the possibilities for international co-operation in monitoring work.
The outlines for co-ordination of ESB procedures in the Nordic countries were described in a previous report from the Project Group, Co-ordination of Environmental Specimen banking in the Nordic Countries (Nordiske Seminar- og Arbejdsrapporter 1993:609). The main task for the Project Group in the first phase was to select baseline information on specimen banking and to form the principles and strategy for the forthcoming co-ordination and future co-operation.
In the second phase of the task, the work continued on basis of the suggested outlines, the result of which is presented in Nordic Environmental Specimen Banking - methods in use in ESB. Manual for the Nordic countries. (TemaNord 1995:543). More accurate that meant to investigate national methods for common activities in practice in specimen banking in the Nordic countries. The Project Group made it quite clear that the primary goal was to compile an inventory and directory of all methods, or as many as possible in practice today. That was considered as a necessary base for information to be able to harmonise methods used in those parts of national specimen banking that are directed at common inter-Nordic and international projects and in order to work for common recommendations and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in the future.
The presented collection of SOPs should be looked upon as a collective manual and guideline for methods in specimen banking practised in the Nordic countries to make them available for use, and for validation and comparison of usefulness, similarities and relevance. The manual in its current extension is also aimed to guide personnel involved in ESB activities linked to monitoring of the state of the environment, mainly concerning persistent pollutants in biota.
In the harmonisation work, close contact have been established with programs working in the field of environmental monitoring and nature protection in the circumpolar area. Among them is AMAP (Arctic Monitoring Assessment Program). Monitoring in co-operation within international organisations as e.g., ICES also consider guidelines for sampling, preparation, etc., given within, e.g. OSPARCOM and HELCOM. Those operating procedures have been included whenever they have been practised in any national or international monitoring programme.
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The manual is compiled by
"Projektgruppen för miljöprovbanksverksamhet i Norden"TemaNord 1995 543
ISBN 92 9120 662 8
ISSN 0908-6692
© Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen 1995
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