Doha: The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), represented by the Monitoring and Environmental Laboratory Department, launched yesterday the first phase of the field monitoring programme for the marine environment status on the beaches of Qatar for 2021.
During the first phase, MME teams will collect samples from the marine environment in the State to analyse them and make the necessary measurements in 14 beach sites in various areas of the country, which include tourist, economic and industrial areas, as well as marine reserves and coastal areas that are frequently visited by people. The field survey will be conducted semi-annually during winter and summer.
Field measurements and their results are conducted using the latest scientific and international devices in field marine readings. Samples are collected from benthic organisms, tar balls, surface and deep soil samples, in addition to marine phytoplankton and zooplankton samples.
The environmental laboratory will analyse these samples to determine the characteristics and physical results of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen concentrations, pH, transparency of water and chlorine.
Chemical measurements will be conducted through chemical elements, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, and the chemically and biologically consumed oxygen. The biological analyses will be carried out by studying the total number of zooplankton, phytoplankton and benthic plankton, and defining their types, the number of bacteria and the ratio of Chlorophylla.
