The plankton ecology and water chemistry laboratory is one of the core components of CEW. 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 the 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.