KiEco Freshwater Ecology: Diatoms
Natural Resources Wales
Description
Freshwater diatoms (phytobenthos) are free-living microscopic plants that form a biofilm on submerged substrates such as rock/stone or large plants. They are used as an indicator of water quality because their silica shells are easy to identify under the microscope. This dataset is made up of the relative abundance of different species within the sample from freshwater diatom surveys conducted across Wales by Natural Resources Wales and former Environment Agency Wales. These surveys are conducted as part of on-going monitoring of river water quality for legislative requirements and to meet business drivers.
Data quality
NRW analysts all take part in a ring test to ensure competence but otherwise there has been no formal QA of our data. Prior to this upload there was currently very little diatom data on NBN Atlas to use in validating our species distributions. Therefore, NRW would welcome any verification of this dataset from experts
Methods
A strict methodology is applied when sampling for freshwater diatoms. There is a core network of sites which are monitored on a three-yearly rolling programme. These sites may be added to for investigative work, or on an ad hoc basis. Sampling areas are located with a larger survey area and must be representative of the overall survey area. A stone scrape method is the most commonly used method for sampling freshwater diatoms. However, where necessary alternative methods are used, for example in areas with no suitable substrate. Natural Resources Wales collect and analyse in excess of 350 diatom samples from rivers and lakes every year. Once samples are collected they are sent to the laboratory for analysis.
Citation
Natural Resources Wales. ([Insert year of download]) KiEco Freshwater Ecology: Diatoms. Occurrence dataset accessed through the NBNAtlas
Rights
© CNC/NRW
Data may be re-used under the terms of the Open Government Licence providing it is done so, acknowledging both the source and NRW's copyright. It is the recipient's responsibility to ensure the data is fit for the intended purpose.
Attribution statement: Contains Natural Resources Wales information © Natural Resources Wales and Database Right. All rights Reserved.
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Digitised records
Looking up... the number of records that can be accessed through the NBN Atlas. This resource was last checked for updated data on 08 May 2024. The most recent data was published on 08 May 2024.
Click to view records for the KiEco Freshwater Ecology: Diatoms resource.![](https://registry.nbnatlas.org/data/dataProvider/NRW.jpg)