Volunteers in waders monitor a shallow stream, one using a net while others watch from the gravel bank with buckets

Citizen science

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The Riverfly Partnership

Under the Riverfly Partnership citizen science project, volunteers from the public are trained to identify specific groups of freshwater invertebrates.

The numbers and diversity of aquatic invertebrates found can tell us a lot about the health of our watercourses, for example by measuring the impact of pollution events or monitoring the recovery of wetland restoration projects delivered under the HLS scheme.

The monitoring group in the New Forest is part of a network of groups across the country that monitor the health of our rivers and streams.

What’s in the data?

While interpreting relationships between aquatic invertebrates and river restoration is complex due to various influencing factors like climate variability, research indicates that naturally functioning rivers contain more variable habitats and, thus, support greater species diversity.

Data collected by the volunteers gives a better idea of the different variables impacting their composition and abundance such as restoration work, climatic changes or pollution events.

Wootton

At Wootton riverine woodland, Riverfly data was used to look at how the restoration work impacted the Riverfly survey results.

Little change was found in yearly scores pre and post restoration, but an increased number of recorded groups was detected, possibly indicative of an increase in habitat diversity.