SmartRivers: Using Freshwater Invertebrates to Monitor River Health

Rivers in the UK are facing an unprecedented threat from human disturbance but it can be challenging to identify the pollutants that are driving biodiversity loss in a particular location through traditional water testing methods. However, the invertebrates living in our waterways are particularly sensitive to pollution and the impacts can clearly be seen in their populations long after any particular incident. SmartRivers is a pioneering programme run by WildFish that builds on the work of The Riverfly Census using surveys of freshwater invertebrate populations to identify the challenges facing freshwater systems.

This project enables community groups, trusts, and other organisations to benchmark and monitor the health of their own rivers. The evidence collected by the SmartRivers programme allows for both local and national engagement on a range of issues to better protect our valuable freshwater habitats. Dr Sam Green gives an overview of the methods used to monitor freshwater invertebrate populations, the work we do, and how you can get involved. He will also discuss the power of citizen science in addressing gaps in government monitoring efforts and highlight some case studies demonstrating the importance of data collected from WildFish’s SmartRivers programme.

Q&A with Dr Sam Green

Dr Sam Green is a freshwater ecologist at WildFish primarily supporting SmartRivers. WildFish is the only independent charity in the UK campaigning for wild fish and their habitats. We identify and lobby against the key threats driving the decline in wild fish populations, from various forms of pollution to open-net salmon farming. Ultimately, our goal is for fresh and coastal water habitats that are clean, healthy, biodiverse, and able to support sustainable populations of wild fish.

  • What percentage of UK rivers are being monitored using the SmartRivers methodology?
    This is variable by year as it depends on the funding of individual hubs. In a given year, some hubs will cease and some will expand their programme. The short answer is probably not enough!
  • How long does it take to process one sample?
    Again, this is variable depending on what is in the river, if the group undertake their sampling as a single group versus pairs and the method by which the specimens are being identified. To do the kick sampling is just 3 minutes plus 1 minute of hand-searching so the time spent in the river is relatively low. Depending on how many sites a hub monitors, they can generally do their sampling in a day. The time-heavy component is the identification – if you are in a perfect chalk stream habitat you could be collecting thousands of mayflies. for those hubs that do the ID in-house, they tend to get together as a group and usually take a full day to get through the sample for a single site.
  • Do you have quality assurance procedures in place to verify the species identifications?
    Quite a lot of our hubs do opt for the ‘sample and send’ due to the time commitment that is required for ID and because they have funding to do so. These specimens would be identified by a professional entomologist. For the hubs that undertake all of the identification themselves, one in five samples are randomly selected for quality control. These are sent to a professional entomologist and we then organise a follow-up meeting with the hub to go over any discrepancies and provide guidance for the group.
  • Do you use the data from the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative data in your analysis?
    The two schemes complement each other in terms of monitoring rivers, but ARMI data and SmartRivers data do different things. The acute issues monthly bankside monitoring sampling is designed to pick up pollution events and uses family-level identification. SmartRivers uses species-level identification with monthly monitoring and twice-annually deep dives into the chronic pressures on rivers.
  • Is SmartRivers able to detect impacts from pet flea treatments?
    Although I’ve focused on sewage release in this talk, SmartRivers can detect other pressures and pet flea treatments are one that we’ve been discussing a lot recently. There are pet flea treatments that you can buy on Amazon that contain neonicotinoids that are banned for agricultural use, and the impact on rivers is amplified when this is a ‘spot-on’ treatment rather than a tablet. this will get picked up in our chemical stress score. To use a hypothetical, if you were monitoring a stretch of river that you care about and you know there is an area where lots of dogs are entering the water, you could monitor sites upstream and downstream of this to identify any impact. Up to 90% of chemicals entering our waterways are from medicine – human and veterinary.
  • Is the SmartRivers data publicly available?
    Yes, via Cartographer – though there is obviously a lag as we process data and add it each year. Instructions for accessing this can be viewed in the video below.

Literature references

Further info

entoLIVE

entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!

entoLIVE is only possible due to contributions from our partners.

More on freshwater biology

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entoLIVE Season 1 Summary Report

The first season of entoLIVE aimed to make invertebrate science more accessible through a programme of presentations and blogs covering a wide range of taxonomic groups, including insects, annelids, molluscs, crustaceans and jellyfish. Entomological groups included mayflies, grasshoppers, true flies, beetles, bees, dragonflies and wasps. Invertebrates across terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments were covered, in addition to presentations that covered multiple taxa (such as presentations on sequencing invertebrates and invertebrate sentience).

The entoLIVE Summary Report provides a breakdown of the season 1 engagement stats, presents the feedback survey results and outlines the future for entoLIVE. The full report can be viewed and downloaded below and some key findings are summarised in the sections below.

entolive-summary-report-v1-30.11.23Download

Season 1 Engagement

Season 1 of entoLIVE took place between February and July of 2023 and included 20 live webinars, alongside their associated YouTube videos and blogs. It was delivered by the Biological Recording Company with funding from the British Entomological & Natural History Society and the Royal Entomological Society.

The entoLIVE programme has been successful in engaging large audiences, with season 1 webinars receiving over 6.6k bookings and over 2.7k live webinar attendees. The YouTube videos for season 1 have been viewed over 5.5k times and the blogs have over 3.9k views. The average number of bookings for season 1 webinars was 334 bookings, and the average attendance was 135 attendees.

When the bookings are plotted over time (from webinar 1 onwards), there is a clear upward trend in the number of bookings (as can be seen by the dashed red line in the graph below). This is further supported by comparing the average number of bookings per webinar by season, with the season 1 average being 334 bookings and the season 2 average being 444 bookings (as of the 15 webinars that have aired to date).

Season 1 Feedback

An online feedback survey form was sent to all individuals that had booked on a minimum of one of the 20 webinars within season 1 of entoLIVE. 179 responses to the survey were received.

One of the primary aims of entoLIVE is to raise awareness of research outputs and increase the use of these, so it was encouraging that over half (55%) of the respondents reported that they had gained awareness of new research outputs and 28% had gone on to look up invertebrate research outputs as a result of their engagement with entoLIVE.

Furthermore, 43% of respondents were motivated to take part in invertebrate research (such as citizen science projects), 35% had used knowledge gained from entoLIVE in their voluntary or paid work and 11% had referenced research outputs presented in entoLIVE within their own work.

In addition to these direct benefits, 37% of respondents felt more connected to the invertebrate research community and 28% reported learning about the work of entoLIVE sponsors.

Survey respondents were asked what they most liked and disliked about the entoLIVE webinar programme. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. A selection of positive comments from the survey are listed below.

Looking Forward…

Season 2 is currently underway and runs from mid-July 2023 until the end of December 2023. A total of 15 webinars from season 2 have already been delivered and 5 more are currently scheduled and open for bookings.

Check out the entoLIVE webinar series on Eventbrite

Season 3 will take place during 2024 (running from January to December) and will include a minimum of 20 webinars. To date, 11 webinars have been scheduled:

  1. Showcase Butterflies: Expanding Networks of Farmers & Biological Recorders (Dr Stuart Edwards)
  2. The Return of the Native: The Great Fox-spider in Britain (Mike Waite)
  3. Leeches: Life History and Identification (Craig Macadam)
  4. Darwin’s Earthworms: A Groundbreaking Piece of Soil Ecology (Kerry Calloway)
  5. Nature Overheard: Acoustic Monitoring for Insects Through Community Science (Dr Abigail Lowe)
  6. The Plight of the Bumblebee: A 12-Year Reintroduction Case Study (Dr Nikki Gammans)
  7. Refurbishing the Bee Hotel: Different Bees, Different Needs (Dr Linda Birkin & Isobel Sexton)
  8. Spiders, Earthworms and Spiders: The Impacts of Cover Crop Frost Tolerance (Dr Amelia Hood)
  9. Butterflies Through Time: Climate Change, Conservation & Historic Specimens (Matthew Hayes)
  10. Bees and Heatwaves: Preparing For A Warming World (Yanet Sepulveda & Isobel Sexton)
  11. Bees and Beyond: Ecosystem Services at a Garden Scale (Dr Linda Birkin)
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American Signal Crayfish: A Losing Battle?

American Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) have been widely established in the UK since the 1970s and have had many adverse impacts including the near extinction of the native White-clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipe). This presentation discusses efforts to control this invasive species in southwest England.

Q&A with Dr Nicky Green

Dr Nicky Green has been working with crayfish since 2003 and has recently completed a PhD on the control of American signal crayfish. She focuses on practical and effective methods to control invasive crayfish and has worked on Exmoor and elsewhere since 2015 trialling new and innovative techniques.

Does the addition of refuges possibly help Signal Crayfish populations?

No, the refuges are being used as a trap. The refuges are checked regularly and the crayfish you find are removed. So the crayfish are not in the refuges long enough to benefit from this habitat.

Are Signal Crayfish able to get around the crayfish barriers by moving over land?

It’s part of the recommended design that the vertical slippery-sided walls are present (such as non-rusting metal sides like copper). If a barrier is poorly designed, the crayfish will bypass the barrier and it will not be effective.

How were the crayfish sterilised in your study?

We used a mechanical method where the gonopods (used to transfer sperm from the male to the female during mating) were removed. These are removed using scissors and is a quick and painless procedure. Our study had high survival rates and did not lead to mortalities.

What happens to American Signal Crayfish once they are caught?

As a non-native invasive species, American Signal Crayfish should be dispatched when caught. The most ethical method of dispatching a crayfish is to make a cut through the carapace from front to back (as this is where its heart, brain and nervous system are) and it is very quick. It used to be advised to freeze them but this takes a while for them to die and involves transporting them around in a bucket all day until you get them to the freezer which causes stress and is not practical in the field. It is now illegal to transport live crayfish so you must dispatch them bankside.

What should long-term management be resourced and who is responsible?

There have been discussions about the creation of a crayfish strategy and funding of crayfish control. I’ve advised that there is little point in taking this forward until we understand what works and what impact control has. I don’t believe there is any point in throwing money at something that is not guaranteed to work. Crayfish control can be very expensive and may even be futile. The current situation involves a lot of grassroots organisations doing what they can on a shoestring budget, but we’re not yet at the stage where large amounts of central funding would be effective.

Do you think that it is a losing battle or is their hope for Signal Crayfish control?

I think that there is hope down the line. There is a real need for dissemination and concerted effort. The recently created GB invasive crayfish steering group aims to review current invasive crayfish control efforts and provide recommendations to relevant stakeholders. I’m also teamed up with the Biological Recording Company to host the Signal Crayfish Virtual Symposium to facilitate the sharing of crayfish control research from across Europe and taught their Crayfish & Surveys training webinars.

What is the one thing that naturalists can do to help when it comes to American Signal crayfish?

The key thing is to make sure that we are reporting all instances where we come across crayfish. That includes reporting sightings of the invasive American Signal Crayfish and the native White-clawed Crayfish – or any other type of crayfish! I recommend photographing the crayfish and sending your record to iRecord or the Local Environmental Records Centre, and also.

Literature references

Further info

entoLIVE

entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!

entoLIVE is only possible due to contributions from our partners and supporters.

More on freshwater biology

Check out the Freshwater Invertebrates collection on Eventbrite

The State of the UK’s Butterflies: Are Conservation Efforts To Save Our Butterflies Working?

The UK’s butterflies are in trouble with half of them listed as threatened or near threatened and 80% having decreased in abundance, distribution or both since the 1970s. This talk will present the latest assessment of the UK’s butterflies, drawing on decades of data from citizen science recording and monitoring. Despite the gloomy overall picture painted by the long-term trends, numerous examples show that, given sufficient resources, conservation action can turn around the fortunes of threatened butterflies.

Q&A with Dr Richard Fox

Dr Richard Fox is Head of Science at Butterfly Conservation. He has been developing and running citizen science recording schemes for UK butterflies and moths, and analysing the results, for over 25 years.

  • Does The State of the UK’s Butterflies report use all survey data, including the Big Butterfly Count?
    In theory, it all contributes. The population trends come from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme and the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey as these use transects that can be compared between years. The data from various other recording schemes, including the Garden Butterfly Survey and the Big Butterfly Count, are passed on to County Recorders that check the records and verified records enter the Butterflies For the New Millenium database (the national recording schemed for butterflies). We’ve analysed the Big Butterfly Count data and shown that the changes from year to year for the unverified data closely match changes from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.
  • Is data available for the Republic of Ireland and are the trends the same?
    Butterfly Conservation covers Northern Ireland but not the Republic of Ireland. The data holding organisation for Ireland is the National Biodiversity Data Centre and they organise a monitoring scheme that also involves transects. It hasn’t been running as long as the UK scheme. They also collate distribution records. An Ireland butterfly atlas is in progress, though I’m not sure when this is due.
  • Are a lot of the range expansions into Scotland due to climate change?
    Yes, I think it is mostly due to climate change. We’re a collection of relatively cool and damp islands off the coast of Europe and all of the butterfly species that occur in the UK are also found in other parts of Europe. Many of these species reach a climatically determined edge to their range in the UK and Ireland. Most of these species are southerly species and adapted to warmer conditions, and they are now able to survive further north. We also have some cold-adapted species, such as Northern Brown Argus, Mountain Ringlet and Scotch Argus, that we don’t get in the southern parts of Britain and these species may see their ranges retract further north and uphill.
  • Should conservation efforts focus on the rarest species of butterfly?
    The Red Listing process was created and is managed by the IUCN and is a global standard to measure the risk of extinction of a species, – not its rarity nor conservation priority. Just because something is listed as Endangered on a Red List does not necessarily mean that a species should be a conservation priority. Factors that need to be considered include how much we know about a species, do we know how to conserve the species effectively, how much will conservation interventions cost and how pragmatic is it to try to conserve a species. The Small Heath is a species on the Red List that is still very widespread in the UK so it is hard to imagine what we can practically do at a species level. Another species may not be declining at all, but have a very restricted population (i.e. be considered rare) with reasons to worry about its future. Undertaking local conservation interventions that are likely to have an impact on the restricted species may therefore be the conservation priority.
  • Are there any other captive breeding for butterflies designed to retain genetic diversity?
    As far as I’m aware, there aren’t any captive breeding schemes for UK butterflies that are going on for the sake of retaining genetic diversity itself. However, there are other captive breeding projects underway to reintroduce butterflies to areas where they have been lost. The Cumbrian Marsh Fritillary Project example that I gave in my presentation involved taking caterpillars from that last web and crossing them with individuals from Scottish populations before release. Reintroduction only works when there is the necessary habitat management in place – it’s not a good idea to introduce butterflies into an area if there is no suitable habitat.
  • Are there illegal non-conservation releases and does this impact the data?
    It can be a problem for the data, as it can make the data difficult to interpret – for example, a population could look healthy if a species is being repeatedly introduced in an area and this may result in a lack of conservation interventions where they are needed. It can also be illegal, for example releasing them onto a protected site such as a SSSI or releasing a non-native species.
  • What is the best thing that the general public can do to help butterflies?
    The best thing would be for people to let their grass grow long and allow wildflowers and “weeds” flourish. This can be a patch within the garden, and these can be rotated in different years. We need to consider both the adult and larval (caterpillar) stages of butterflies and regularly mowing grass removes important habitat for caterpillars. Plus it costs nothing to do! No Mow May is a great initiative to get people thinking, but it isn’t long enough to have a significant impact. We need No Mow Year!

Literature references

Further info

entoLIVE

entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!

entoLIVE is only possible due to contributions from our partners.

More on invertebrates

Check out upcoming events on Eventbrite

The Downland and Dung Beetle Project: The Story of Onthophagus joannae

Dung beetles are vital to healthy soil systems where livestock are present. They perform a variety of ecosystem services, and are in turn, a food source for other invertebrates, reptiles, birds and mammals. Research has now shown that only a quarter of all UK dung beetle species remain in a state of ‘least concern’ with the rest considered regionally extinct or threatened. We have already lost species of dung beetles entirely due to extinction in the UK. A previously well-established dung beetle in this area, Onthophagus joannae, was noted to be now regionally rare to regionally extinct. One very small extremely vulnerable population was found to be remaining on the calcareous grassland bank near Berrycroft Hub, inhabiting a very small area of considerably less than half an acre. Hear about how one person’s accidental restoration of a large area of downland due to a personal obsession to conserve one particular species of dung beetle.

Q&A with Sally-Ann Spence

Sally-Ann Spence is a farmer & an entomologist who specialises in dung beetles & pastureland biodiversity. She founded the UK Dung Beetle Mapping Project accumulating species data. Her work with the project has seen her surveying field sites all over the UK including many outlying islands enabling her to study a multitude of grazing systems. This practical experience has been translated into collaborative projects working on sustainable land management plans within the farming community to promote dung beetles as important bio-indicators for soil, pasture & livestock health. As a founding member of Dung Beetles for Farmers, she remains a passionate advocate of British farming & biodiversity.

Where in the UK is your project?

It’s literally on the Berkshire/Oxfordshire county border, in the North Wessex Downs ANOB. The main grassland area is within Oxfordshire & neighbours the Ashdown House National Trust estate near Swindon.

Are dung beetle species specific to the dung of a given animal (for example sheep, rabbits, cows etc.)?

You get both generalists and specialists. Generalists tend to be less threatened as they can make use of a wide range of dung providers. For example, I’ve found Acrossus rufipes on all sorts of dung including Rhinoceros (Cotswold Wildlife Park) and Red Deer on the tide line in shingle on a beach on the Isle of Arran. Specialist invertebrates tend to be more at risk due to their specific needs. You have specialist dung beetles when it comes to dung type. For example the Minotaur Beetle (Typhaeus typhoeus) will only choose dung that is in a pelleted form, such as rabbit, deer and sheep dung – but it wouldn’t make use of the sloppy dung sometimes generated by sheep, only when it is in the pelleted form. Bigger dung beetles are often only associated with bigger animals (such as horses and cattle) just because of the sheer amount of dung that they require.

Do you see Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) helping dung beetle populations?

These schemes encourage farmers to undertake more conservation-based farming, for example including wildflower mixes (as well as encouraging Red Data List species). It is the presence of livestock that will help dung beetles. There is a move away from livestock that is occurring due to a number of factors, including a meat free diet. Regenerative farming is a practice that can involve introducing livestock and grazing onto arable farmland, by using a cover crop over winter instead of bare soil. Cover crops (such as stubble turnips), which is then grazed by livestock. Undisturbed soil is also important for dung beetles. Livestock being kept indoors (such as breeds that struggle with our winters & for logistical reasons/ground conditions) can also be problematic for dung beetles, as we have species that are active all year round. Schemes can be quite rigid and every farm/farmer is different. What is good in one area for one species, may not be so in others.

Are you using any worming treatments (such as ivermectin) and what is the impact on dung beetles?

The impact of ivermectins is massive and goes beyond dung beetles. These chemicals are persistent and do not break down quickly after use within the animal – being transferred into the soil through the dung. Any treatment for parasites is an insecticide. It is possible some species appear to avoid dung that contains the active insecticides within these treatments, whereas others will still feed on the dung. Those beetles that consume contaminated dung will die. Other species will come in a bit later on when the dung being produced is less toxic and experience sub lethal effects -impacts on their navigation, fertility, larval and pupae development. As dung beetles are the catalyst for creating the communities within dung, this has a knock-on effect on the whole dung invertebrate community. Dung that isn’t broken down by dung beetles and the associated invertebrate communities will persist in the field for much longer as decomposition is then reliant on fungi and bacteria. It is a particularly difficult and complex subject as farmers need to control these parasites in order to ensure their animals welfare and that their business is financially viable. We need an alternative treatment that does not persist in the dung and we need to think about practices that enable us to use less of these insecticides. This is something I am passionate about and address in my workshops within the farming community. I have put a lot of work into my own livestock on many levels over the years to try to reduce usage. Despite making huge inroads I do still have to treat some individuals and have a management plan in place for this. Those animals that require treatments are removed from the calcareous grassland area and treated in a quarantine paddock. I am also working with many different projects across the U.K. trying to find alternative solutions and keen people appreciate these chemicals are used in the pet industry as well.

Further info

entoLIVE

entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!

entoLIVE is only possible due to contributions from our partners and supporters.

More on invertebrates

Check out upcoming events on Eventbrite

Can Satellite Imagery Data Be Used For Biodiversity Net Gain?

Achieving Biodiversity Net Gain with all developments will be legislated in November this year in England. Understanding the presence and health of ecosystems on both proposed development sites and sites being used for biodiversity offsets is a pivotal component of this for ecologists to produce habitat condition assessments.

This blog discusses the potential role of satellite imagery in the use of habitat condition assessment and monitoring, and if there is a role for it alongside traditional on-the-ground surveys. A live virtual symposium was held on 15 November 2023, with presentations from Dr Dan Carpenter (an ecologist) and Richard Flemmings (a data scientist), followed by a transcript of a panel discussion that was hosted by Sally Hayns (CEO of the Chartered Institute for Ecology & Environmental Management).

The Role of Satellite Data in Biodiversity Net Gain

Dr Dan Carpenter (Digital Ecology)

With an increasing range of sensors, ever-improving resolution, and frequent data updates, satellite represents an enormous resource for observing planet earth. Myriad environmental applications have already been found for satellite data, but where might it be useful in biodiversity net gain? In this talk, Dan Carpenter will share his thoughts on the potential applications, as well as the limitations, of satellite data for BNG.

Dr Dan Carpenter is a Digital Ecologist working at the interface of ecology and digital technology. He is interested in how digital tech can be harnessed to help deliver better biodiversity outcomes.

  1. Walrus from space: https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/walrus-from-space
    Elephants from space: https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/counting-elephants-from-space/
  2. Rainforest deforestation tracking: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145988/tracking-amazon-deforestation-from-above
  3. Wildfire monitoring: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/151407/raging-fires-in-nova-scotia
  4. Digital Ecology website: https://digital-ecology.co.uk/
  5. Follow Digital Ecology on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-ecology/

Satellites for Environmental Monitoring – Advantages and Limitations

Richard Flemmings (Map Impact)

Satellite data has long been used to measure environmental variables. The view from above has the advantage of covering large areas of the landscape, whilst collecting consistent and repeatable data that is objective. Combined with novel data analytics approaches, satellites can provide indicators of vegetation quality, vigour and biodiversity at scale. However, there are many things that a satellite cannot achieve. This candid presentation will draw on case study examples to demonstrate what satellites can and can’t achieve.

Richard Flemmings has specialised in applying geospatial and satellite earth observation data to environmental challenges throughout his career. He is interested in taking a highly collaborative approach to ensure that these data feeds can benefit as much of society as possible.

  1. More info on the BiodiversityView tool: https://www.mapimpact.io/product/biodiversityview/
  2. Check out the MapImpact website: https://www.mapimpact.io/
  3. Get in touch with Map Impact to discuss their products and services: info@mapimpact.io
  4. Follow Map Impact on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/map-impact/

Satellite Imagery for BNG Panel Discussion

Hosted by Sally Hayns (Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management)

  1. What’s a ‘spatial framework’?
    Dan. A spatial framework is where there is an agreed set of boundaries for representing data. For example, OS MasterMap, where OS have mapped all of the polygons on the ground that we can then apply information to it, such as noting the habitat of a polygon.
    Richard: UKHab is trying to bring together a framework for habitats that is the defacto framework that everyone uses. Map Impact uses a hexagon framework that works not just for the UK, but globally.
  1. How is woodland condition assessed?
    Dan: Woodland condition is assessed on the ground using the condition assessment provided alongside the metric provided by Defra. This uses a set of criteria, including structural diversity, deadwood etc. These data are shared with Map Impact, who then look at if they can detect the same woodland condition based on satellite imagery.
    Richard: With the satellite data, we take each piece of woodland and look at the satellite spectral signatures to understand how it is performing. This is compared with all of the surrounding woodlands within a 10 km radius. This tells us where it sits in terms of performance.
  1. Does Map Impact use its own dedicated land classification system to contribute to its map or is it solely based on a collation of other open-source land cover maps and parameters?
    Richard: Currently this is solely based on a collation of other open-source information.
  1. What are the sources of open data already available for habitat mapping?Dan: Natural England Living England data – this is good for habitat data currently on version 4 and is constantly being updated. There is also the CORINE Land Cover, Open Street Map Land Cover data and the CEH Land Cover Maps.
    Richard: The open data that we are using includes all of the data mentioned by Dan, but also incorporates part of the open Ordnance Survey datasets and several other habitat layers published by Defra and Natural England (such as their priority habitats data). We’ve initially focused on England while building this dataset, but we’re also in the process of expanding this to cover Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and hope to have these UK-wide datasets ready by early 2024.
  1. Is there any provision for mapping smaller habitat segments that might be part of corridors or stepping stones?
    Richard: There is some really interesting work going on around habitat mapping. That’s not something that Map Impact are currently directly addressing – we are using open-source habitat data to feed our tool. There is potential for small habitat segments to be mapped down to a high level of detail. However, there is a trade-off as it can be quite costly to obtain imagery at this fine level of detail. It may be more cost-effective to actually send out a surveyor, so it is important to consider financial viability.
    Dan: There are a number of other methods for gathering these data that may be much more cost-effective, such as ground surveys, LiDAR and UAV. The power comes from combining these sources of data and picking the right tool for the right job.
  1. What size of land holding can your tool provide a screening assessment and habitat quality overview for?
    Richard: The minimum area size that we are currently providing is 10HA within the BiodiversityCheck report.
  2. Is there a repository for this UK Hab / condition assessment data to improve accuracy in these models going forward?
    Sally: Many ecologists are carrying out UK Hab condition assessments on a daily basis and it would be great to have these collated in local repositories, possibly hosted by Local Environmental Record Centres.
    Richard: This doesn’t yet exist, however, as Sally said, it would be great to have ecology surveys and condition assessments collated in local repositories, possibly hosted by Local Environmental Record Centres.
  1. Have you explored higher-resolution RGB imagery?
    Richard: We are using Sentinel-2 data. We have looked at higher-resolution data but the coverage and cost are not suitable to provide a country-wide and consistent dataset. The model uses existing open source datasets to identify the habitat type, and depending on the habitat type, a number of satellite-derived indices are applied to observe the condition using a range of scores that then align with a “Good, Moderate, Poor” condition for that habitat. These are assigned a confidence score based upon comparisons between the satellite observations for the habitat, compared with ecologist observations on the ground using the Defra Biodiversity Metric Calculator.
  1. How much ground truthing of these outputs has been undertaken and what level of confidence do you have by habitat type?
    Richard: The approach that we’ve taken assigns a confidence score for each report, with a banded level of confidence ranging from high to low. This is calculated based on comparisons between the satellite data and on-the-ground surveys by ecologists to understand how accurate the satellite data is. We’ve collected hundreds of points this year, but we are aware that this isn’t enough and we’ll continue to keep adding ground-truthed data as time goes by. The more we add, the more the confidence levels will improve. There are limitations to when we can do the ground-truthing For example, we need to assess grasslands in summer (and ensure we are comparing these to satellite imagery taken during summer).
    Dan: The ground-truthing is essential to give users the confidence that the numbers coming from the satellite data reflect reality. I’ve been working with Map Impact to go out and do various habitat condition assessments across England. We’ve also worked with others who can provide data that has been collected in the same way. We have a programme for next year to gather more data and try to capture some of the subtleties, such as capturing the different types of grasslands and sub-habitats.
  2. Is this screening assessment a valid BNG baseline survey using metric 4.0 and could replace the need for an ecologist’s survey on the ground?
    Richard: The satellite approach does not replace the need for an ecologist to provide an in-situ ground survey that is compliant with the requirements of the Defra Metric Calculator.
  1. Do you think we will be using satellites for monitoring offsetting sites into the future over the next 30 years, to ensure they are being appropriately managed?
    Richard: Satellites are a very useful tool to consistently and repeatably observe sites over long periods of time to ensure appropriate management. However, it is important to use a consistent data source and a consistent approach in terms of level of detail and output. This will ensure that sites are monitored in a consistent way and that comparisons can be drawn over a long period of time. Sometimes, improving the level of detail will make this a difficult task to achieve.
    Dan: I think satellite data will be part of the tool kit of monitoring, but really we need to be thinking about more integrated approaches to monitoring, that make the best use of data, technology and surveys to really determine the success or otherwise of BNG.
  2. Corporate reporting frameworks like TNFD recommend using the Biodiversity Intactness Index and the Ecosystem Integrity Index, do you think there is scope to use these to track and monitor sites under BNG or other compliance schemes?
    Richard: Yes, there is scope to align monitoring requirements to potentially fulfil the needs of both BNG and TNFD. Whilst different frameworks are being developed that align with different reporting requirements, it’s important that they remain flexible enough to allow cross-compatibility. Satellites are a potential common data source that offers the wide area coverage and objectivity needed to link these frameworks together.
    Dan: The Biodiversity Intactness Index is a species-based index, so satellite data are not appropriate here. However, they may be used in part to help with determining the Ecosystem Integrity Index which looks at measures of structure, function and composition.
  3. What role do you think AI could play in this technology?
    Richard: There is huge potential for AI considering the amount of data that is being captured. The number of satellites gathering data is constantly increasing, resulting in an enormous amount of data. There are limits to how much data humans can reasonably trawl through so AI provides great potential to extract the information that is useful from these huge data sources.
    Dan: It’s important to remember that the term AI is applied to a range of things, not all of which will be applicable to analysing satellite data. As Richard has explained, machine learning and deep learning (i.e. using computers to look at patterns) are where I see the real value of AI in complementing the skills of data scientists and ecologists to analyse the data.

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Slipping Under the Radar: Recording Slugs in British Gardens

Slugs are widely known as a problem for gardener’s, but surprisingly little recording has been done in UK gardens for them. In this talk we hear about the citizen science research Imogen has been running; from the species-specific Cellar Slug survey, to “Slugs Count” the first in-depth study of the British garden slug fauna since the 1940s. We’ll hear how over 22,000 new slug records made by the public have helped inform our understanding of the slug fauna in Britain and evidence the large scale changes we are seeing over recent decades.

Imogen Cavadino looked at the slug species diversity and ecology in UK gardens as part of her PhD with Newcastle University and the Royal Horticultural Society. She is ordinary committee member for the Conchological Society of Britain and Ireland, council member for National Forum for Biological Recording and acts as a verifier for terrestrial mollusc records on iRecord. She is a keen advocate for this often unloved and overlooked fascinating group of terrestrial invertebrates.

Q&A with Dr Imogen Cavadino

  • If I have photos of possible cellar slugs, where can I send them for identification?
    It’s best to submit your record with photos to iRecord and Chris or I will try to give some helpful feedback. We welcome records where the recorder has made their best guess – just indicate with the certainty field that you are ‘uncertain’. If you’re really not sure which species it is, you can always submit it to genus level only (i.e. a record of Limacus) and we’ll try our best to get it to species from the photo. You can also submit to the Facebook group to get a second opinion, or just Tweet it to me and I’ll reply there.
  • There seem to be gaps in some parts of the UK, such as southwest Scotland. Is this due to a lack of species present in these areas or did you not get full coverage of the UK?
    We tried to get as much coverage of the UK as possible, but there were gaps. We had coverage from the applications, but some of these weren’t able to take part. We started recruitment just as Covid hit the UK so it was quite a challenging time for people. Although the project is finished, records for these areas can still be submitted through iRecord to help the recording scheme fill some of these gaps. I’m always happy to undertake freelance courses in these areas for any projects or organisations that have funding for delivering training.
  • Is the Budapest Slug pests of anything and should we consider thinking about how to conserve them?
    They are considered a pest of root vegetables and are quite common in semi-natural habitats. As a non-native species, we usually wouldn’t prioritise them for conservation. For molluscs, we only consider species that have been here since the last ice age. What constitutes a native species is highly debated.
  • Are the hybrid slugs fertile or are they unable to reproduce sexually?
    As far as we are aware, the hybrid slugs are all fertile and able to breed. Hybridisation is highly complicated and appears to be more common in some genera than others.
  • Was the Barnes and Weil research driven by the ‘Dig For Victory’ campaign or just for an interest in slugs?
    Barnes was definitely into his slugs! Barnes did another study that you definitely wouldn’t get away with today. He introduced a highly pestiferous pest species (Deroceras reticulatum) into the garden of a property he owned to see how the population fared – and it grew exponentially!
  • What is it that attracts slugs into houses?
    Some cases will be purely accidental, but some cases may be due to certain things that they are attracted to. They like things that are damp and can be attracted by foodstuffs, like animal feed or damp cereals – so you do get them attracted to pet bowls. they used to enter my parent’s kitchen regularly but all of a sudden stopped – I think partly because my parents installed underfloor heating!
  • Do Leopard Slugs eat other slugs?
    There is evidence that Leopard Slugs (Limax maximus) will attack other slug species. It’s likely that this is territorial rather than predatory. They will also feed on dead slugs. We don’t have strong evidence to show that they attack and eat other slugs as a common behaviour as most of the cases where this has been observed are under unnatural laboratory conditions.

Literature references

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entoLIVE

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Team PollinATE: Feeding People and Pollinators

Over one-third of all the food we eat relies on insects for pollination. While there is increasing interest in urban food growing as a more sustainable option for meeting the nutritional needs of city dwellers, we currently know very little about pollinator populations in urban areas. Beth reports the results of a recent study that harnessed the power of citizen science and engaged urban growers themselves in collecting data on the bees, beetles, butterflies and flies that pollinate fruit and vegetable crops in urban areas.

Q&A with Dr Beth Nicholls

Dr Beth Nicholls is a research fellow at the University of Sussex with over ten years of experience studying the ecology and behaviour of bees. A major motivation for her research is to contribute solutions for the dual challenges of halting insect declines and producing food more sustainably.

  • Were there any differences between surveys conducted by you personally and the surveys conducted by citizen scientists?
    Yes – I separated out bumblebees, honeybees and solitary bees, whereas the citizen scientists only distinguished bumblebees from other bees. the paper that I’m working on at the moment is comparing my data with the citizen scientist data and look forward to publishing the results of this comparison in full soon!
  • Did any of the allotment sites have beekeepers on site and, if so, did you see any difference in visiting insects?
    Honeybees on allotments can be quite a controversial topic. We did note down where these were present, but honeybees can fly over such a long distances anyway and there was no way for us to know if there were nearby hives in gardens etc. that the bees may be coming from. As an urban area and with urban beekeeping on the rise (see the London Bee Situation entoLIVE for more on this), Brighton likely has a high density of honeybee hives. Honeybees were the most observed insects across all of the plots regardless of onsite hives.
  • How can we distinguish if an insect is a pollinator or pest?
    Insects may act as both, just at different parts of their life cycle. Larval stages may feed on parts of the plant and then the adults may provide pollination services. Some larvae may also act as predators of herbivorous insects. there’s a lot we don’t know about individual species, particularly at larval stage, and it can be really difficult to tell species apart. For example, people often mistake hoverfly larvae (which will grow into pollinating adults) for mosquito larvae. Really we want to strive for balanced ecosystems with healthy populations of predators of species that can become pests.
  • Following this study, will the research continue and be expanded into other areas?
    A nutritionist PhD student is continuing the work in Brighton, looking at community growing and what impact this has on diet choices, food availability, health and wellbeing. A second PhD student is taking the research beyond Brighton to other urban areas, focusing on perennial crops (such as hedgerows and trees) and looking at the impact on other benefits such as the heat island effect and flooding.

Literature references

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entoLIVE

entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!

entoLIVE is only possible due to contributions from our partners.

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The Rothamsted Insect Survey NBRI: From Microscopes to Machine Learning

The story of the Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) starts back in 1964 at a time when the Beetles released Can’t Buy Me Love’ and that finishes sometime in the future when entomology might look quite different. The RIS monitors many groups of insects using its 12.2 m suction-trap and light-trap data networks. James discusses insect declines and the work of the RIS. James is joined by Dr Yoann Bourhis who talks about the DRUID (Drivers and Repercussions of UK Insect Declines) NERC-funded project and demonstrates a citizen science app that uses machine learning to predict where species might be, extending our knowledge about current species distributions.

Q&A with Dr James Bell

Dr James R. Bell is a Principal Scientist and Head of the RIS, a BBSRC National Bioscience Research Infrastructure. James is a quantitative ecologist with expertise in entomology having published widely on beetles, spiders, aphids, moths and many other things besides. James is senior author on Practical Field Ecology: A Project Guide which offers a comprehensive, accessible introduction to experimental design, field monitoring skills for plants and animals, data analysis, interpretation and reporting. The book is now in its second edition.

  • How are aphids able to develop resistance to insecticides when they reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis?
    It’s a complex story. They may have metabolic resistance, meaning they have a way of dealing with insecticides inside their guts so that there is no overbearing negative effect on their performance. They may have target-site resistance. This is quite complicated to explain. These two mechanisms mean that aphids can adapt very quickly. For example, the Peach Potato Aphid (Myzus persicae) is the species that transmits the viruses in sugar beet and it is remarkable in that there is almost no insecticide that it can’t evolve resistance to. This complicated story can only be unravelled by studying the genetics of aphids. Regarding the parthenogenetic component, this is part of the story but aphid reproduction is often more complex. For example, peach is the primary host of the Peach Potato Aphid where it overwinters and reproduces sexually, enabling the population to acquire resistance. Any individuals that are susceptible to an insecticide would pass this on to any daughters (and subsequent generations) produced through parthenogenesis as the genome is not really changing (aside from small changes occurring due to mutations).
  • Where is the best place to look for research/observations that have been made about the symbiotic relationship between aphids and other insects?
    there is a book by A. F. G. Dixon title Aphid Ecology An optimization approach that provides an introduction to aphids. The issue with learning materials about aphids is that there isn’t much in the way of aphid citizen science so the literature tends to be aimed at an academic audience. I’m not aware of a resource where you could access this data, so all I can recommend is trawling through the data. Alternatively, you could grow broad beans in your garden and you’ll get the Black Bean Aphid (Aphis fabae) and the associated ants so you can observe them yourself!
  • What proportion of the sugar beet crop is for human rather than cattle consumption?
    Great question. Each field that is used for sugar beet crops is contracted by British Sugar by the field, so we know about every field that is used for this crop. At the moment 80,000 hectares of sugar beet are grown across East Anglia. The best sugar beet will achieve a sugar content of 16%. If the sugar content is too low, a farmer may decide to send it to fodder (or take a penalty on their contract). Therefore,  it is hard to answer this question as it is up to individual farmers what happens to the fodder crop and it will also depend on the season. We can only comment on the proportion that was rejected and not what the end use of that crop was.
  • How much do we know about aphids outside of agricultural research?
    I’m only aware of a single person in the world who is actively trying to conserve aphids. Everyone else that I know is trying to understand how we can control them and limit their population growth. Interestingly, they are different from other groups where the species diversity decreases towards the tropics. We don’t really understand why. There are still lots of avenues for interesting research when it comes to studying aphids outside of agricultural systems.

Dr Yoann Bourhis is an ecosystems modeller, with expertise in machine learning. Yoann’s main activity is as a post-doc on the DRUID project, funded by NERC. DRUID will take an unprecedented amount of citizen science data to underpin evidence-based policies to help nature. A key paper relating to Yoann’s presentation was published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution earlier this year and demonstrates how it is possible to use machine learning to understand the distribution of insects using their life history traits (e.g. wing length, host plants etc) and environmental drivers (temperature, rainfall etc) to predict new distributions of insects.  It is hoped that this new knowledge will guide recorders to sites where the species is predicted but no survey has yet confirmed the presence of that species. Yoann has developed an app and we invite you to contribute your experience and expertise.

Literature references

Further info

entoLIVE

entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!

entoLIVE is only possible due to contributions from our partners.

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Riverflies: The Canary of Our Rivers

Riverflies, along with other freshwater invertebrates, are at the heart of the freshwater ecosystem and are a vital link in the aquatic food chain. Their common characteristics of limited mobility, relatively long life cycle, presence throughout the year and specific tolerances to changes in environmental conditions make them good biotic indicators of water quality and useful indicators of change.

The Riverfly Partnership has developed the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative to enable citizen scientists to assess and monitor the health of rivers in their communities. Anglers, conservationists, and concerned community groups can act as guardians of the river by using the standardized monitoring technique developed by the Riverfly Partnership, in effect becoming an early warning system detecting disturbances in river water quality and raising the alarm, so that relevant statutory bodies can investigate further. Data collected by monitors is freely available to all and has been used to successfully prosecute polluters, showing the power of citizen science.

The Freshwater Biological Association provides an overview of the methodology, sharing the progress of the project and what’s in store for the future. Case studies are discussed that highlight the amazing work of the volunteer monitors and how you can get involved.

Q&A with Trine Bregstein

Trine Bregstein joined the Freshwater Biological Association in March 2022 as a citizen science coordinator. She has an interest in engaging people with conservation initiatives, helping them to foster a connection with nature and their local environment. The Riverfly Partnership is hosted by the Freshwater Biological Association.

  • Do cased caddisflies create a new case after every moult?
    I believe that cased-caddis flies add to their cases as they grow – repairing and upgrading the case as they go.
  • Is there any guidance available for obtaining permission to monitor a site from the landowner?
    We don’t have a guidance document for this – but it would be a really useful thing to have. With rivers, it can be tricky to figure out who the landowner is and not all landowners are keen to grant permission on their site. we’re always happy to give advice on how to sweet-talk landowners. You can find out more information about getting involved with the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative here.
  • How long did it take the River Kennet to recover from the pollution incident?
    It did take quite some time. The RMI detects the change in the macro-invertebrate community and this will have knock-on effects later on. In the River Kennet the Environment Agency monitored the situation and conducted electro-fishing (a sampling method to enable them to capture and assess the state of fish populations) at a later date. The Thompson et al. (2015) paper gives a lot more detail and is worth having a read for more information on this case study.
  • Can pollution fines be used to fund training and equipment in river monitoring?
    Last year the government stated that money from fines will be ring-fenced for work to improve water quality, such as initiatives to restore our water environments by creating wetlands, re-vegetating river banks and reconnecting meanders to the main channel of rivers. I don’t know specifically what it has been used to fund or how it is allocated. On our Get Involved page, there is guidance on fundraising for local groups that want to get set up and links to directories that can help you find funding.
  • If you find non-native animals, like Chinese Mitten Crab, when sampling should you return them to the water course?
    For non-native species, we would always advise checking out the Invasive Non-Native Species guidance online and ensuring you understand the legislation relevant to the UK country that you are surveying within. In England and Wales (at the time of writing on 18/09/23), if you accidentally catch a listed invasive alien animal during ringing or monitoring operations of other animals, you will not have committed an offence if you immediately release it (or you can also take it to a facility with a licence or permit). If you find a non-widely spread animal on your land or in the wild, you must report it to the non-native species secretariat. As the Chinese Mitten Crab is listed as a widely spread animal, you do not have to take any action but it is still useful to record your sighting through the Non-native Species iRecord Form.

Literature references

Further info

entoLIVE

entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!

entoLIVE is only possible due to contributions from our partners and supporters.

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