Riverfly and Water Quality

Monaghan Tidy Towns is fortunate in having the experience of Bernie O Hanrahan on hand to demonstrate the investigation of water quality in local streams.  Water Quality Sampling involves the process of collecting a “kick sample” by kicking up the gravel on the bed of the river or stream and catching everything that is disturbed in a net. The macro-invertebrates to be found are small aquatic animals such as insect larva, snails, worms, beetles etc and are excellent indicators of water quality. Where rivers are unpolluted there is a great variety and abundance of these.  However, where a river is polluted, the numbers and types of macroinvertebrates is usually lower and many of the rare and sensitive species are absent. 

Sample video at https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/daily/environment/using-kick-sampling-to-determine-the-quality-of-water-in-a-river.php