Aquatic Biomonitoring

How healthy are our lakes and ponds?

We have established a monitoring programme at a lake or pond in each of the nine OPAL regions.

As part of the Aquatic Biomonitoring project we are visiting each site every three months to undertake the following analysis

Physical: water clarity, temperature, conductivity, oxygen profiles
Chemical: major ions, nutrients
Biological: zooplankton, phytoplankton, diatoms

We are conducting annual surveys of aquatic plants and invertebrates to find out what is there and to notice any changes from year to year.

This work will lead towards a full assessment of key water quality indicators which local communities can continue to monitor beyond the OPAL project.

Monitoring partners
Pond Conservation
Buglife
British Phycological Society
Riverfly Partnership

Sediment sampling
As sediment (mud) accumulates at the bottom of lakes it stores a record of change within the lake over time. By taking a deep narrow column of this mud, known as a sediment core, we can look back at the history of the lake and assess how pollution inputs have changed over time. This will also help people appreciate how quickly water quality and ecology can degrade and improve.

See all the results so far
All the data and observations from this project can be found on our regularly updated results page.

OPAL Water - research results

Interested in our work? Want to get involved?
We are working with a number of local and national groups and societies.

Join one of our partner organisations