Abstract
ABSTRACT The Riverfly Partnership, launched in 2004, is a UK network of organisations and individuals working to protect river habitats and macroinvertebrate communities. The Riverfly Partnership’s Anglers’ Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (ARMI), launched in 2007, supports citizen science volunteers to monitor macroinvertebrates in their local rivers. In Manchester and surrounding areas, ARMI monitoring began in 2011 with volunteers from a fishing club active across the Irwell catchment. Whilst there has been mixed success establishing a robust long-term monitoring program, volunteers investigate issues raised by the local community and data provide a baseline against which river pollution events can be compared. For example, in April 2017 citizen scientists responding to a report of dead crayfish by an angler identified a pollution incident resulting in a catastrophic loss of macroinvertebrates along a 19 km reach of the River Irwell. Recognizing the limitations of the ARMI methodology for urban and degraded rivers nationwide led to the development of the Urban Riverfly index through the Riverfly Partnership so that citizen scientists can more effectively contribute to the work of government agencies mitigating urban river pollution. Citizen science has importantly been a catalyst for public engagement and environmental projects which should encourage wider public participation in river catchment management.
Highlights
1.1 Macroinvertebrates as bioindicatorsThe macroinvertebrates living amongst vegetation and within or on the sediment of rivers provide a valuable resource for the assessment of a wide range of aquatic parameters (Armitage et al 1983; Hawkes 1998; Everard 2008)
Rigorous statutory monitoring was developed in the UK through the 1970 National River Pollution Survey (Hawkes 1998) and subsequent BMWP (Biological Monitoring Working Party) system, which scores taxa on a scale 1-10 based on their tolerance to pollution (Armitage et al 1983)
We examine the challenges the program has faced and continues to face, the lessons learnt, and recommendations to guide future citizen science work monitoring and reporting on river health in Manchester and beyond
Summary
The macroinvertebrates living amongst vegetation and within or on the sediment of rivers provide a valuable resource for the assessment of a wide range of aquatic parameters (Armitage et al 1983; Hawkes 1998; Everard 2008). Rigorous statutory monitoring was developed in the UK through the 1970 National River Pollution Survey (Hawkes 1998) and subsequent BMWP (Biological Monitoring Working Party) system, which scores taxa on a scale 1-10 based on their tolerance to pollution (Armitage et al 1983). A further development was Average Score Per Taxon (ASPT), which is the BMWP cumulative score divided by the number of taxa and a measure of the average pollution tolerance of the sample (Everall et al 2017). The ASPT limits both the influence of sampling effort (larger samples are likely to include more families, which increases the BMWP score) and the skewing effect of an outlier
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