ENUMERATION OF FRESHWATER PHYTOPLANKTON CONCENTRATED ON THE MEMBRANE FILTER1

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Abstract
Individuals of the phytoplankton become distributed at random when concentrated on the membrane filter. The percentage of microscopic fields in which a species occurs may therefore be validly converted to a theoretical average number of individuals per field. The theoretical density thus obtained and the actual density determined by time‐consuming counting are very nearly similar values when 25 or more fields are scored. An enumeration technique using this relationship is described. It has many advantages over commonly used procedures for concentrating the plankton and estimating the number of individuals in a sample.