Page 5 - Freshwater-Biology-and-Ecology-Handbook

Overview

This handbook provides an overview of the biological and ecological methods used to assess the
status of the freshwater environment. Good river health is the key outcome and aim of this work.
The principles of the delivery of the Water Framework Directive remain constant and feed forward
into future river management approaches.

Chapter 1 provides an overview, including the legal framework for freshwater biological monitoring

Chapter 2 is a practitioner’s guide to the standard methods for invertebrate sampling and data
collection

Chapter 3 provides an understanding of current river invertebrate classification methodologies,
focussing on RIVPACS and Surveillance Monitoring.
Chapter 4 looks at other sampling methods for Investigative Monitoring

Chapter 5 looks at indices and data analyses for investigations, including the increasing
contribution from citizen science programmes.

Chapter 6 considers the reporting methods used in the UK and the EU, specifically with links to
investment programmes, driven by the monitoring and assessment information.
It also provides links to publicly available datasets.

The focus is on river invertebrate methodologies and on status classification using UK RIVPACS
to provide a working example of what is needed to set up a biological monitoring programme for a
national initiative, a river catchment or a specific tributary. Most invertebrate methods utilise these
key principles and we expect users to modify and adapt methods to their specific situations as
needed. Several key biological and ecological methods are not covered in this handbook, including
fish, macrophytes, diatoms, river restoration methodologies, still-water methods, and statistics
and computing methods. We invite other specialists to work with FWR and FBA to add additional
chapters or sections to expand its coverage.

The core elements described here are the basis for training programmes and university teaching,
to provide the expertise to consolidate the improvement of river health into the future. We also
hope that this provides a useful insight for civil servants, water managers, specialists, and river
conservation groups working to improve and protect our invaluable freshwater environment.

We invite you to contribute.