Quality Control and Taxonomic Accuracy at Biologica

Biologica is committed to providing the highest quality data through stringent quality control measures for all of our services.

Our Commitment to Quality

Sorting efficiency
The removal of all available benthic invertebrates from sample debris for identification is necessary for meaningful sample analysis, as incomplete sorting of organisms from debris will result in missed organisms and flawed data. Biologica technicians all have a performance record of >95% sorting efficiency. We re-sort a minimum of 10% of the debris for all of our benthic projects as part of our regular sorting protocol.

Subsampling Accuracy
Biologica staff have extensive experience with various subsampling protocols for marine and freshwater samples. We ensure any error resulting from subsampling is minimized for all of our services, starting from the determination of the best subsampling protocol to fit the sample type. For benthos, we follow CABIN and EEM protocols most often, but please contact us if you have specific requirements.

Taxonomic verification and reference collections
Biologica houses externally-verified reference collections for all of our services and service areas, including marine and freshwater benthos, zooplankton, and digital collections for algae. Any taxa new to these collections are sent for external verification. Our taxonomists routinely update these collections and supporting literature to ensure our taxonomic identifications are as up to date as possible.

Taxonomic consistency
For all of our long-term projects, data are routinely analyzed for consistency to ensure taxonomic updates do not mislead our client’s interpretation of time series data. We have databases with coded histories of name changes to ensure we can compare historical and recent data sets, regardless of origin.

For more information on taxonomic analysis, please consult our FAQ page.

Frequently Asked Questions

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