Riverfly monitoring
Monday November 4th, 2024
As you wander beside a river or watch it rush by during your train ride to work, you might find yourself searching for signs of life. Ducks, swans, or the occasional kingfisher or leaping fish may catch your eye. But what lives beneath the surface, playing a vital role in the food chain and indicating a healthy ecosystem? Invertebrates.
Many of these river-dwelling creatures spend most of their lives as larvae, hidden below the water’s surface, only emerging later as flying adults, like mayflies. These tiny creatures are integral to our river systems and essential for monitoring water quality.
So, how do we track the health of our rivers through these invertebrates? That’s where riverfly monitoring comes in.
What is riverfly monitoring?
Riverfly is a citizen science programme that empowers volunteers to monitor river health by sampling and counting key indicator invertebrate species. The process involves a simple technique: volunteers “kick” the riverbed to temporarily disturb and collect invertebrates, which are then identified and counted.
Surveyors focus on eight key species, which have been identified as particularly sensitive to pollution and habitat changes, making them valuable in detecting environmental issues that may not be immediately visible:
Mayflies: (Ephemeridae) nymph, olives (Baetidae) nymph, Blue-winged olive (Ephemerellidae) and flat-bodied stone clinger (Heptageniidae) nymph.
Stoneflies: (Plecoptera).
Caddisflies: cased caddis & caseless (Trichoptera).
Freshwater shrimp: (Gammarus).
Benefits of riverfly monitoring
Monitoring riverfly offers numerous environmental, scientific, and community benefits, including:
- Early detection of pollution incidents.
- Providing valuable data for informing restoration efforts.
- Raising awareness of how these small yet vital species play an important role in the wider food chain and biodiversity.
- Helping us to connect with our local environment and communities.
Join us in protecting our rivers
By joining our riverfly monitoring programme, you will play an important role in safeguarding the health of our local waterways.
To enquire about training, email: [email protected]
Find out about The Riverfly Partnership.
