The participants in the Scheme include laboratories from Competant Monitoring Authorities (CMAs) in the UK and Ireland (Environment Agency, SEPA, CEFAS, FRS, AFBI, NIEA, MI ), the nature conservatien agencies (represented by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee) and a number of independent environmental consultancies.

	Environment Agency		CEFAS Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science
	SEPA Scottish Environment Protection Agency		JNCC Joint Nature Conservation Committee
	AFBI Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute		NIEA Northern Ireland Environment Agency
		Marine Institute Of Ireland
		FRS Fisheries Research Services

Scheme Rationale and Aims

It has been increasingly recognised by biologists working in coastal waters that there is a pressing need to standardise methods of analysis and move towards developing and managing a control system ensuring uniformly high quality of data. Reliance on ecological data in terms of its ability to describe quantitatively the quality of the ecosystem and any environmental impact thereon, has been increasing, and the development of Environmental Quality Standards based on biological determinands has further reinforced this need.

Standardisation of methodology has been addressed for a number of years but problems of assurance of data and analysis has only recently been traced although the problem of error was known for many years. Sources of error in biological data arise through sampling (operator error, position fixing, season, sampling method, equipment), sample processing (methodology, operator error), identification, (operator error, methodology), and interpretation (data processing). Sampling and data interpretation are clearly different from the analytical process but have a major impact on the quality of information produced and it will be important to include them in any quality control scheme.

The NMBAQC Scheme aims to improve and maintain the standard of marine biological data being generated to assess the status of marine waters in the UK and the North East Atlantic. Through the provision of quality control exercises, training exercises, workshops, and information exchange it is hoped that marine biological laboratories can share and develop expertise. The Scheme does not aim to ‘police’ marine biological assessment, rather to facilitate improvements in assessment. While the aim of the Scheme is to quality assure biological data it is not a laboratory accreditation scheme. Labs are strongly encouraged to sign up to appropriate accreditation schemes in addition to participation with the NMBAQC scheme.

The scheme aims to benefit the competent monitoring authorities (e.g. EA, SEPA, NIEA, CEFAS, FRS, AFBI, JNCC) as a whole by providing quality assurance for marine biological data being produced by the authorities, or data produced for the authorities by contractors or licensees.  The quality assurance is based on independent selection of samples for audit.  A value added part of the scheme is the detailed comparative reporting of the AQC process which along with the training exercises and workshops contributes towards development of best practice.  The scheme should not be viewed as a sample auditing service for individual CMA participants, or contractors.

In order to meet the quality assurance objectives scheme standards have been set for samples collected for the UK National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP).  Data for the NMMP (now called CSEMP – see below) is submitted to the UK MERMAN database (http://www.bodc.ac.uk/projects/uk/merman/).  Performance targets have been introduced for samples submitted within the Infaunal Invertebrate and Particle Size components. Invertebrate or Particle Size samples which fail to achieve acceptable quality remain flagged along with additional associated samples from the same analytical lab. for the corresponding year.   Remedial action is required for failing samples (and associated replicates), according to set guidelines and once this has been completed the sample flags can be removed.  It would be appropriate to utilise similar standards for Invertebrate samples collected for other programmes such as the European Water framework Directive (WFD). It is proposed to develop AQC auditing exercises and pass/fail standards for samples submitted within the Epibiota, Macroalgae, Phytoplankton and Fish components.   As the specific methodological problems within each component are quite different then the format of sample auditing exercises may vary but the underlying requirement to provide some sort of quality assessment relating to data from real samples remains the same.           

History of the NMBAQC Scheme

1. The UK National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP)
   The stimulus to erect a national AQC scheme for benthic community analysis was the evolution of the UK National Marine Monitoring Plan (NMMP) in 1991, which itself was conceived as the UK contribution to the international programme of the Monitoring Master Plan of the North Sea Task Force. The objectives of the plan were to examine, initially spatial and secondly temporal, trends in physico-chemical parameters and in benthic community data of estuaries and coasts around the UK in relation to pollution.

   The plan was initiated in 1992/93 with the National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP) undertaken by a variety of agencies and laboratories around the UK, contributing to a national database held by the UK Environment Agency. The plan embraced the concept of Quality Assurance and Analytical Quality Control both for chemistry and biology and required a national co-ordinated programme for QA and AQC. For the biological aspect, this prompted the development of a new National Marine Biological AQC Coordinating Committee in 1992/3 reporting to the Marine Pollution Monitoring Management Group (MPMMG).

   The NMBAQC committee was given the task of erecting and managing a UK national scheme which commenced in 1994/95. The scheme initially focused on benthic infaunal invertebrate communities monitored under NMMP and addressed biological determinands relating to taxonomy, specimen enumeration, biomass determination and particle size analysis. While the NMBAQC scheme originally aimed at problems within laboratories contributing to the NMMP database, other marine labs and consultancies recognised the value of such a scheme and signed up as participants.
   In 2006 the NMMP programme was renamed CSEMP (Clean Seas Environment Monitoring Programme).
   
   To find out more about CSEMP:
   http://www.sepa.org.uk/marine/

2. BEQUALM
   The Biological Effects Quality Assurance in Monitoring Programmes (BEQUALM) project was initiated in 1998 as a European Union funded research programme. This aimed to develop appropriate quality standards for a wide range of biological effects techniques and devise a method for monitoring compliance of laboratories generating data from these techniques for national and international monitoring programmes. The ultimate goal of this programme was to develop a Quality Assurance (QA) system for biological effects techniques which would be self-financing on the basis of fees recovered from participants. These would cover three major fields: Whole Organism Analysis, Biomarker Analysis, and Community Analysis.
   The research programme, completed in 2002, incorporated nine different projects including intercalibration exercises and training workshops on benthic community analysis and phytoplankton assemblage analysis. The benthic community workpackage was led by the Institut für Meereskunde (IfM), Kiel, Germany, and the phytoplankton analysis workpackage was led by the Forschungs und Technologie Zentrum Westküste, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) (Büsum, Germany).
   In 2003 BEQUALM adopted the UK NMBAQC scheme as a model to progress the Community Analysis component and launched their full quality assurance programme in 2004 covering Whole Organism, Biomarker, and Community Analysis. With the NMBAQC now nested within BEQUALM Community Analysis, the NMBAQC committee took on the task of offering the services of the established UK scheme for benthic invertebrate community analysis to other European countries. The BEQUALM phytoplankton workpackage initially comprised two parts: chlorophyll analysis and community analysis. The former has been taken forward by QUASIMEME, whilst from 2005, the latter has been re-launched (initially for UK/Eire participants), through the BEQUALM/NMBAQC Scheme via the Marine Institute at Galway.

   To find out more about BEQUALM:
   http://www.bequalm.org/

3. The Water Framework Directive
   The implementation of new Europe-wide legislation (i.e. the Water Framework Directive, WFD), requires all member states of the European Union to monitor the ecological status of inland and coastal waters from 2007. Member states are required to develop and inter-calibrate appropriate ecological assessment tools for each of the ecological quality “elements”: phytoplankton, macrophytes, invertebrates, and fish and to commence WFD monitoring programmes fro defined water bodies. Classification schemes must also be initiated to categorise defined water bodies into one of five bands (High, Good, Moderate, Poor, Bad) with the objective of achieving reaching "good status" in all waters by 2015.

   It is recognised that rigorous quality control of ecological data is essential to this process and the UK government now requires all competent monitoring authorities, as well as contractors supplying data to government agencies, to be members of the BEQUALM/NMBAQC scheme, or an equivalent quality assurance scheme. In order to meet these objectives and associated QA/QC requirements, the NMBAQC Scheme, as well as continuing the benthic infauna and phytoplankton components, is developing additional modules to facilitate WFD monitoring, e.g. epibiota, transitional water fish and macroalgae.

   To find out more about WFD:
   http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/wfd/index.htm

Funding

Start up funding for the UK NMBAQC Scheme was provided by the UK government (Dept. of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA) but the scheme was required to be self funded thereafter. The BEQUALM project (1998-2002) was funded by the European Union but when the NMBAQC scheme was adopted by BEQUALM in 2003, the arrangement for self funding remained. Self funding means the costs for each component or modules within a component needs to be covered by the fees paid by participants. However some additional work areas have been funded, through the scheme, entirely by UK government agencies.

The fees are re-assessed each year by the NMBAQC committee, particularly with the changing contribution of the government agency laboratories (currently funding around 60% of the costs). For each component, fees are estimated on the previous year’s level of participation and the projected costs for the year provided by the scheme contractor(s). At present provision of the invertebrate, particle size analysis, and fish modules is contracted to Unicomarine Ltd, UK, following a competitive tendering process in 2006. The epibiota module is undertaken by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, UK. The phytoplankton component is currently administered by the Marine Institute of Ireland, and the macroalgae component by Wellsmarine Ltd. UK.

The scheme is not a profit making operation. Any surplus funds generated by specific components are re-invested in subsidisation of workshops, or related projects such as and the production of new taxonomic keys, literature lists, or procedural reviews for the benefit of scheme members.

Scheme Components and Modules

Invertebrates
Particle Size Analysis
Fish
Epibiota
Phytoplankton
Macroalgae

Participation

The requirement for external QA for data, produced or received by UK Competent Monitoring Authorities (CMA’s), derives from UK DEFRA policy requiring QA of all data contributing to national, European, or international programmes, such as UK CSEMP (NMMP), European WFD, or ICES. With the implementation of the WFD by various UK CMA’S, including it is now regarded as imperative that all data utilised for any Ecological Quality Assessment is validated via a recognised national AQC scheme (where such a scheme exists).  Hence any organisation involved in the production of such data should participate in the scheme and completion of auditing modules (such as the Own Sample module) is mandatory.  For some CMAs relevant modules have not yet been developed and they may participate on an “information only” basis thus contributing funds to the production of Scheme reports.

The main participants in the scheme are the UK Competent Monitoring Authorities (CMAs) for whom the scheme was initially designed. The scheme is open to CMAs from UK, Ireland, and Europe although participation of the latter has been limited to date. Contractors undertaking analysis of samples on behalf of CMAs or for licensees may also be required to join the scheme.   In addition some contractors or consultancies not directly involved in statutory monitoring programmes may participate on a voluntary basis.

The required level of participation may vary depending on the organisation:

a) CMAs undertaking statutory monitoring programmes - complete all relevant components and modules. This would be the relevant     Own Sample modules as a mandatory minimum, but CMAs are expected to also participate in other training modules.

b) Contractors – undertaking statutory programmes for CMAs – complete relevant modules as determined by CMA.  This would be the relevant Own Sample modules as a mandatory minimum but other modules may be required.

c) Contractors – undertaking programmes (eg Aquaculture Monitoring) for licensees which may support statutory programmes such as WFD – complete relevant Own Sample modules as a mandatory minimum, other relevant modules are recommended.

d) Contractors or consultancies not involved in statutory monitoring programmes – all relevant modules are recommended  but participation is voluntary.