At the heart of Florida LAKEWATCH is our water chemistry laboratory. This facility processes over 60,000 water samples annually to monitor and better understand water quality throughout Florida’s diverse aquatic ecosystems. The LAKEWATCH lab provides the analytical backbone for our long-term monitoring efforts, ensuring high-quality, reliable data that informs local, regional, and statewide water resource management.
Core Laboratory Services:
- Water Chemistry Analysis
- Total Phosphorus (TP)
- Total Nitrogen (TN)
- Chlorophyll-a
- Color (true color via platinum-cobalt method)
- Specific Conductance
While the LAKEWATCH lab is not certified by the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC), we have rigorous quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures to ensure that accurate and robust data are generated from volunteer samples. In fact, our program has published three important studies showing the accuracy of our volunteers' data when compared to professionally collected samples (see Select Publications for more information). Additionally, we frequently collaborate with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to ensure our QA/QC meets their standards whenever and wherever possible. This includes ongoing inter-laboratory comparisons, as well as a recently-completed laboratory audit, the report from which can be reviewed here or through FDEP's audit search page.
Our primary obligation is to analyze volunteer-collected samples from waterbodies within the LAKEWATCH program. When our capacity permits, our lab may analyze additional samples that support our program's mission as well as the research, teaching, and/or extension mission of UF/IFAS. Therefore, all external projects must be approved by our director before samples are submitted. Because volunteer samples are prioritized for analysis in our lab, please note that the timeline for receiving results for approved external projects is longer than that of a commercial service lab; while two months is our typical turn-around time, it may take up to six months from drop-off to receive your results. Our current fee schedule can be found here: Lab Rates. Please contact fl-lakewatch@ufl.edu for more information.
Our lab also houses a Nippon MA-3000 Direct Mercury Analyzer (DMA), which primarily analyzes sediments or fish and invertebrate tissues for total mercury concentrations on a parts per billion basis. This instrument is used for our research and select extension and teaching activities. If interested in mercury analysis and collaborating with our team, please contact Dr. Lescord at lescord.g@ufl.edu. Reports showing mercury data in fish from select lakes can be found on our Reports page.
Supporting Volunteers and Research
LAKEWATCH wouldn’t be possible without our network of citizen scientists. Our laboratory exists to support their efforts and to produce data that stands up to scientific and regulatory scrutiny. Our laboratory operates under and follows strict QA/QC procedures to ensure accuracy and consistency across all samples. The lab is staffed by trained technicians and supported by UF scientists. In addition to supporting long-term monitoring, our lab services are frequently used in collaborative research projects, environmental assessments, and educational programs.