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

Category: Environment
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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.

Geographic Coverage: Republic of Ireland

Temporal Coverage: River macroinvertebrates are collected from June to September each year, 2007 to 2018, when flows are likely to be relatively low.

Species Groups recorded: roundworm (Nematoda), hairworm (Nematomorpha), insect - true bug (Hemiptera), insect - beetle (Coleoptera), insect - caddis fly (Trichopte, flatworm (Turbellaria), sponge (Porifera), insect - mayfly (Ephemeroptera, insect - true fly (Diptera), crustacean, annelid, mollusc, insect - alderfly (Megaloptera, acarine (Acari), insect - lacewing (Neuroptera), insect - dragonfly (Odonata), insect - stonefly (Plecoptera)

Dataset Status: The dataset is complete and inclusive of data collected 2007 to 2018.

Additional Information: 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/

Data Resources (3)

HTML
available as html
CSV
available as CSV
HTML
Organisation Home Page
Theme Environment
Date released 2022-03-04
Date updated 2022-03-04
Dataset conforms to these standards The INSPIRE Directive or INSPIRE lays down a general framework for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the purposes of European Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.
Rights notes {"Creative Commons licence conditions apply",https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/,otherRestrictions}
Language English
Landing page http://maps.biodiversityireland.ie/Dataset/335
Geographic coverage in GeoJSON format {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-10.3495277, 51.5432484],[-10.3495277, 55.3559586], [-6.0411566, 55.3559586], [-6.0411566, 51.5432484], [-10.3495277, 51.5432484]]]}
Spatial Reference Systems (SRS) TM75 / Irish Grid (EPSG:29903)
Vertical Extent {"verticalDomainName": "EPSG Projection 5731 - Malin Head height", "minVerticalExtent": "0", "maxVerticalExtent": "0"}
Provenance information 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 Data Capture Method: Please see open access publication Feeley et al. (2020) for full details. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-00618-8 Data Capture Purpose: Assessment of river biological quality Original Format: CSV
Period of time covered (begin) 2007-01-01
Period of time covered (end) 2018-12-31