The river restoration 'ecological toolbox': examining biomonitoring indices to guide catchment management strategies

该项目将开发一个“生态工具箱”，以确定主要应激源(S)，强调河流生态系统以及在实施具体的河流恢复战略后促进生态恢复的可能性。为此，它将采用初级数据收集，一种‘大数据’方法来评估关键的人为应激源，应根据多种大型无脊椎动物指标的反应确定优先顺序，并确定河流恢复的机会。候选人将利用河流修复中心的专业知识和他们的“国家河流修复清单”来瞄准暴露在特定人为干预和压力下的水道。这位候选人还将使用环境署的Biosys数据集，对目标河流进行长期淡水河流大型无脊椎动物调查。将对流域范围进行评估，并了解一套河流恢复措施，以便为有效的管理战略提供信息。工业伙伴将帮助确定具有可靠基准数据的修复项目(接近完成或最近完成)，这将是主要数据实地收集的重点。这将提供对支撑大型无脊椎动物度量反应的生态机制的更多因果理解，从而进一步完善和改进生态工具箱及其预测可持续河流恢复干预的能力。

This project will develop an 'ecological toolbox' that identifies primary stressor(s) stressing river ecosystems and the likelihood of promoting ecological recovery following the implementation of specific river restoration strategies. It will do so by employing primary data collection a 'big-data' approach to assess key anthropogenic stressors which should be prioritised based on the response of multiple macroinvertebrate metrics and identify river restoration opportunities. The candidate will draw on the expertise of the River Restoration Centre and their 'National River Restoration Inventory' to target watercourses exposed to specific human interventions and pressures. The candidate will also work with the Environment Agency's 'BIOSYS' dataset on long-term freshwater river macroinvertebrate surveys from targeted rivers. Catchment-wide assessments and knowledge on a suite of river restoration measures will be undertaken to inform effective management strategies. The industrial partners will help identify restoration projects (near completion or recently finished) with robust baseline data which would be the focus of primary data field collection. This will provide a greater causal understanding of the ecological mechanisms underpinning macroinvertebrate metric responses, thus further refining and improving the ecological toolbox and its ability to predict sustainable river restoration interventions.