Riverfly Monitoring - Citizen Science in action
As part of the national Riverfly Partnership, ARK are the Riverfly Hub for both the Kennet and Pang catchments.
Our trained ARK volunteers monitor 64 sites on the River Kennet and its tributaries and 6 sites on the Pang to check the health of the river and pick up otherwise undetected pollution incidents.
If you'd like to see the latest data please email anna@riverkennet.org
Click on the map to reach our interactive Riverfly Map to find out more:
ARK and Citizen Science
Riverfly monitoring assesses the water quality of Britain's rivers by identifying and counting eight key indicator invertebrate groups which live in our rivers. The data is shared with the Environment Agency, The Riverfly Partnership, The Wildlife Trusts, Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre and any other interested parties, as well as being analysed by ARK.
Riverfly monitoring is a proven method of picking up pollution incidents that would otherwise go undetected. In July 2013 a major chlorpyrifos pollution event was picked up by our monitors at Elcot Mill, Marlborough and subsequently led to the prevention of any further discharge of this insecticide into the watercourse.
The Key Indicators:
Caddisfly (Sedge) Larvae
Cased Caddis
Caseless Caddis
Upwing Fly Larvae
Mayfly (Ephemeridae)
Blue-winged olive (Emphemerelidae)
Olives (Baetidae)
Flat-bodied Heptageniidae
Stonefly Larvae
Stoneflies - from the order Plecoptera
Freshwater Shrimp
Gammarus pulex
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