A national macroinvertebrate dataset collected for the biomonitoring of Ireland’s river network, 2007–2018

Abstract

the Environmental Protection agency (EPa) in Ireland is responsible for the ecological monitoring and assessment of 37 hydrometric areas covering 46 river catchments and over 13,000 km of river channel nationwide. The national river monitoring program commenced in 1971 and has developed further since 2007 into the National Rivers Water Framework Directive (WFD) Monitoring Program following the implementation of the WFD across the European Union. the monitoring program is designed to obtain sufficiently representative information to assess ecological quality for each water body assessed. Consequently, macroinvertebrate data have been collected at over 2,900 river survey stations on a minimum 3-year cycle to fulfil these requirements. While the EPA has collected these data for water quality assessments we recognize that the data have value beyond this one purpose. We provide a summary of how these 10,987 data records, covering the years 2007 to 2018, have been collected and used to deepen understanding of water quality, biodiversity and general ecological health of Ireland's river network.

Impact and recovery of water quality in a river with salmon aquaculture

“…The results of each sampling site were tabulated and assessed based on the following: number of individuals (abundance), richness (number of taxa); the percentage of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera individuals (%EPT individuals); percentage of Oligochaete and Chironomidae individuals (%OC) and ecological quality rating (EQR) using the Q‐value method (Table 1) (EPA, 2015; Feeley et al., 2020). A number of diversity indices were also calculated; Pielou's evenness ( J ), Simpson's ( D ’) and Shannon's ( H ’) diversities.…”

“…Benthic macroinvertebrate samples were collected using a 2‐min kick sampling technique with a 1‐mm mesh kick sampling net (EPA, 2015; Feeley et al., 2020). This approach is a requirement of the Irish EPA for their Q‐value method (EPA, 2015).…”

Using weighted expert judgement and nonlinear data analysis to improve Bayesian belief network models for riverine ecosystem services

“…For example, we used mayfly richness as an indicator of wildlife value. The Irish monitoring data for river invertebrates are generally collected at a coarse taxonomic resolution, but it is reasonably fine for mayflies (Feeley et al, 2020). Thus, our mayfly richness index could be approximated from the existing monitoring data and, consequently, we used it in data analyses.…”

Status of freshwater invertebrate biodiversity in Ireland's rivers – time to take stock

“…Both rivers were suspected of being polluted by the insecticide cypermethrin, which is used to treat sheep and new forest (including reafforested) plantations for pests. Macroinvertebrates were collected by the EPA using multi-habitat kick sampling (see Feeley et al 2020b for more details) in summer or early autumn between 1993 and 2019 (Site A) and between 1997 and 2018 (Sites B). Taxa were identified generally to family-level for Diptera, non-elmid Coleoptera and Trichoptera; genus-level for most Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Gammaridae and species-level for Baetis rhodani/atlanticus, Elmidae and Gastropoda (Feeley et al 2020b).…”

“…Macroinvertebrates were collected by the EPA using multi-habitat kick sampling (see Feeley et al 2020b for more details) in summer or early autumn between 1993 and 2019 (Site A) and between 1997 and 2018 (Sites B). Taxa were identified generally to family-level for Diptera, non-elmid Coleoptera and Trichoptera; genus-level for most Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Gammaridae and species-level for Baetis rhodani/atlanticus, Elmidae and Gastropoda (Feeley et al 2020b). Where taxonomic resolution differed across sampling years the highest level common across the years was used to normalise the data.…”