Monitoring riverfly
Went down to the Frome to get some initial training on riverfly monitoring by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. There is a national programme co-ordinated by the Riverfly Partnership, and the trust are providing full training to volunteer teams to undertake this year round activity to monitor river health.
There’s a scientific process to ensure that all data is collected as consistently as possible.
The first part involves collecting a sample by kicking the bed into the net for three minutes across different parts of the river section
There are eight species of riverfly that are being recorded, with gammarids being the most numerous. Once the sample is tipped into a container, a pipette is used to transfer each species into a dedicated segment for counting. Close scrutiny is needed to compare the sample against the field guide.
Once separated, the counting and scoring can get recorded onto the monthly sheet. It’s a logarithmic scale of importance with 1 being 1-10, 2 being 11-100 etc. Each identified species is scored and total for the river section recorded onto the national database.
This can then be used to identify where sources and causes of pollution are when scores suddenly drop.
Who knew counting Flys could be so fun 😄
There’s a whole new world down in that river gravel bed!