FBA presents at the 2023 Cumbrian Lakes Research Forum
FBA’s Windermere Senior Scientist, Lynsey Harper (left), and Riverfly Development Manager, Trine Bregstein (right) present at this year’s Cumbrian Lakes Research Forum.
This year’s Cumbrian Lakes Research Forum focused on water quality, quantity, access, and freshwater biodiversity, with examples from both the Lake District and further afield, highlighting wide relevance of freshwater research and the importance of cross-catchment and interdisciplinary dialogue.
Lynsey Harper, Windermere Senior Scientist at the Freshwater Biological Association kicked off the afternoon session with an overview of the Love Windermere Partnership and its Data, Science and Evidence workstream objectives. These include the Windermere Integrated Science Plan, producing State of Windermere reports, and seeking long-term funds to support and promote robust science.
The final presentation of the day was given by Trine Bregstein, Riverfly Development Manager at the Freshwater Biological Association, highlighted exciting developments in the long-standing citizen science “Riverfly” monitoring programme. Riverfly involves kick-sampling to collect invertebrates which are then identified with their presence/absence and abundance recorded. Scores are generated according to the pollution sensitivity of these different invertebrate groups, and if scores fall below an expert-determined trigger level, these are then passed on to the Environment Agency to follow up. Updates to the database mean it will become easier to track trigger breaches and their follow-up.