The plankton ecology and water chemistry laboratory is one of the core components of CEMS. It covers the analysis of macronutrients (nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, phosphate, and silicate), phytoplankton chlorophyll a, and, total suspended solids, as essential parameters for many projects. It also includes a detailed analysis of the zooplankton and phytoplankton community composition using light microscopy. For analysing phytoplankton that are too small to be seen by light microscopy, flow cytometry, and scanning electron microscopy are available.