Page 289 - Freshwater-Biology-and-Ecology-Handbook

Data download can be specified for specific sites and for Take care when analysing historical data. Check the method
specified time periods. Most of the data is from 1990 or later. of sampling and analysis. Samples collected before 1990 are
likely to have been collected and analysed by methods other
An Excel tool to format the invertebrate monitoring data, than the standard methods described in Chapter 2.
including the associated environmental data from the Data
Explorer so that it can be uploaded to the River Invertebrate Bankside assessments are less precise than laboratory
Classification Tool (RICT2), is available from the RIVPACS/ analyses and are unsuitable for status classification because
RICT website RICT2 Data Extraction Template: https:// bias and probabilities of class assume more precise
www.fba.org.uk/rivpacs-and-rict/rict-rivpacs-user- laboratory analysis. Before about the year 2000, only families
guides included in BMWP indices (ie RIVPACS taxonomic level
TL1) were recorded at most sites, but from around 2000,
This template converts data extracted from the interactive additional families included in WHPT were included in family-
map (but not data from the bulk download) into a form that level analyses (RIVPACS taxonomic level TL2). From about
can be pasted into the RICT data input template. 2013, the Environment Agency standardized on mixed-taxon
(species) analysis (RIVPACS taxonomic level TL5), although
A link to the Data Explorer can be found both in the tool and in some areas have analysed to this level for a long time,
the Supplementary Data section of the RIVPACS/RICT User particularly in East Anglia.
Guides web page.

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