About This Project

I'm studying the small invertebrates in streams, rivers and lakes in the centre of Ireland to understand their makeup, distribution and stressors. As the number of adverse climate events increase and mean annual temperatures change, I want to see how communities of invertebrates change - which are resilient and which are not, how some can form indicators of resilience or change as well as general water quality for recreational use by local people. The approach will use eDNA methods.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Aquatic macroinvertebrates are commonly used as indicators of the biological condition of streams, rivers , and lakes. They are reliable indicators because they spend all or most of their lives in water, are easy to collect and differ in their tolerance to pollution. Macroinvertebrates respond to human disturbance in fairly predictable ways, are relatively easy to identify in the field or laboratory, and many often live for more than a year and, unlike fish, have limited mobility. Since they cannot escape pollution, macroinvertebrates have the capacity to integrate the effects of the stressors (pollution, climate, competition with invasive species) to which they are exposed, in combination and over time.

What is the significance of this project?

As climate change effects in terms of increasing adverse climate events occur e.g. flooding, temperature fluctuation (in 2021 thus far, temperatures of >30'C were experienced in the center of Ireland), and this will change the make-up of the biodiversity in streams, lakes, and rivers. However, since the current situation is only known in a low resolution, it is difficult to say how things will change unless a finer-grained picture is produced.

What are the goals of the project?

The first stage of this project (starting Winter 2021/2022) will be to establish the state of the environment as it is now and to review all previous research. This will involve characterizing the invertebrate communities in the center of Ireland where the current stressors are increasing before the pre-test parameters degrade any further. I will travel to stations around selected sub-catchments based on previous external assessments (e.g. Irish EPA). Biotic samples will be taken to assess water quality

Sediment samples will be taken and eDNA extraction and amplification conducted to determine organismal makeup at present, and at depth, historically. Trends based on changes will be elucidated and compared with water quality.