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

doi:10.15468/c63xzc

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

Citation

Wayne Trodd; Catherine Bradley; Hugh Feeley. A national macroinvertebrate dataset collected for the biomonitoring of Ireland’s river network, 2007–2018 (EPA). National Biodiversity Data Centre. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/c63xzc accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-03-31.

Description

The data described here were originally collected for one purpose – to assess rivers nationwide to determine the quality of the macroinvertebrate communities across the country as part of the WFD ecological status assessment. These assessments indicate changes that pollution brings about in the benthic macroinvertebrate communities, i.e. larval insects (e.g. mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, beetles, etc.) together with crustaceans (e.g. shrimps), snails and bivalves, worms, and leeches. These changes reflect the varying sensitivities of the different groups of macroinvertebrates to the stresses caused by pollution, with sensitive species being progressively replaced by more tolerant forms as pollution increases.

Purpose

Assessment of river biological quality

Sampling Description

Quality Control

All data has undergone full quality control checking. Note taxonomic resolution may vary. More information is available in our open access publication Feeley et al. (2020). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-00618-8

Method steps

Please see open access publication Feeley et al. (2020) for full details. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-00618-8

Additional info

A full description of data collection is available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-00618-8. Also see www.catchments.ie and https://www.epa.ie/environment-and-you/freshwater-and-marine/

Taxonomic Coverages

Geographic Coverages

Republic of Ireland

Bibliographic Citations

Contacts

Wayne Trodd; Catherine Bradley; Hugh Feeley
originator
Environmental Protection Agency
IE
email: W.Trodd@epa.ie; C.Bradley@epa.ie; H.Feeley@epa.ie
homepage: https://www.epa.ie/

metadata author
National Biodiversity Data Centre, Ireland
Beechfield house, Carriganore WIT West Campus
Waterford
County Waterford
IE
Telephone: +353 (0)51 306 240
email: info@biodiversityireland.ie
homepage: http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/

Barry O'Neill
administrative point of contact
National Biodiversity Data Centre, Ireland
Beechfield house, Carriganore WIT West Campus
Waterford
County Waterford
IE
Telephone: +353 (0)51 306 240
email: boneill@biodiversityireland.ie
homepage: http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/