Page 87 - Freshwater-Biology-and-Ecology-Handbook

An extract from BT001, mentioned above, was published
on the ‘Protocols’ page of the STAR-AQEM project website
http://www.eu-star.at/. This only covers the shallow-water
sampling protocols for RIVPACS.

Davy-Bowker et al. (2014) complements the shallow water
method available from the STAR website (30) and is available
from the FBA’s website, together with a comprehensive review
of deep water methods https://www.fba.org.uk/rivpacs-
and-rict/rivpacs-rict-resources
The standard RIVPACS sampling method ensures that the
results of surveys are comparable, even when RIVPACS
itself is not used to analyse the results.
As well as being used for monitoring by the UK’s statutory
agencies and those of many other countries, the RIVPACS
sampling protocol is used for complementary monitoring
activities undertaken by other organisations and interested
groups. Increasingly, citizen science and stakeholder
contributions add to the overall riverine knowledge base.
Chapter 4 examines these and other initiatives in more detail.
The RIVPACS standardisation protocols have provided
a useful baseline, allowing comparable samples to be
taken from almost all riverine environments. It has helped
the development of numerous biotic indices sensitive to
different environmental pressures.

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