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22 - Riverflies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

By
Cyril Bennett  and
Warren Gilchrist
Edited by
Norman Maclean
Norman Maclean
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
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Summary

Summary

Riverflies (mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies) have shown a serious decline in the United Kingdom over the past few decades, most of which has been identified by anglers. This decline has been attributed to a number of causes, including pollution, siltation, abstraction, poor land management, loss of aquatic weed and climatic changes. Whilst there is little quantitative data to demonstrate declines, two surveys have shown a serious decline in one mayfly species and a change in the life cycle of another. The mayfly parasite, Spiriopsis adipophila, new to the UK, could also be restricting the growth rates of certain mayfly species.

The Riverfly Partnership has brought together a large number of organisations with a common interest to conserve and protect riverfly populations. Working in partnership with the Environment Agency, the Anglers Monitoring Initiative (AMI) has been devised for anglers (and others) to check water quality by monitoring riverfly populations. This provides an alert of pollution events that may otherwise go undetected. One-day workshops give anglers the basic training to carry out this simple monitoring procedure and a fully funded PhD study on riverflies is planned to run from 2010.

Reintroductions and improvements to aquatic environments can also help to increase riverfly populations; the mayfly, Ephemera danica, was successfully reintroduced to the River Wey in Surrey and the River Wye in Derbyshire after two serious pollution incidents. […]

Type
Chapter
Information
Silent Summer
The State of Wildlife in Britain and Ireland
 , pp. 401 - 414
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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References

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