Page 124 - Freshwater-Biology-and-Ecology-Handbook

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CHAPTER 2 14 TRAINING

Training is a critical part of quality assurance because it
is the best way to ensure that procedures are followed.
The best form of training for many activities, including
sampling and sample analysis, is on the job, with
mentoring from experienced ecologists who are familiar
with the techniques. For many activities, experience is
as important as theoretical knowledge. Some tasks are
quite simple to explain but remarkably difficult to do well
without experience. Sampling and sorting samples require
particular visual awareness skills that take time to develop.
Comprehensive training on freshwater ecology survey
methods is available in the UK from a number of MSc
degree courses and the Field Studies Council (FSC,
https://www.field-studies-council.org/). The
Freshwater Biological Association (FBA) runs specialist
two-day training courses every year about RIVPACS and
RICT that cover every aspect including sampling, sample
analysis (but not identification) and the use of RICT2
software. This is recommended for all users of RIVPACS
and RICT. Information about this course is available from
https://www.fba.org.uk/rivpacs-and-rict/training-
with-the-fba Both the FBA and FSC run short courses
in invertebrate identification, from general to specialist
courses on particular groups of taxa. Some of these
courses offer accreditation.
Even experts benefit from periodic refresher courses
because it is easy to deviate unintentionally from the
precise procedures, particularly sampling.
The Environment Agency has developed distance-learning
courses on species-level identification and requires
anyone analysing invertebrate samples to have passed
an assessment on the basic species-level module. Other
modules cover individual families in more detail.

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