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What are freshwater macroinvertebrates?

freshwater macroinvertebrates

We can define them as those animals that lack backbone, are normally bigger than 0.5 mm (visible to the naked eye) and can be found in freshwater ecosystems: ponds, streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Some of the major groups under this broad definition are: Mollusca, Crustacea, Insecta, Annelida, Coleoptera, Turbellaria.

Why are they important?

They form part of the trophic chain, fish and other invertebrates feed on them and they can be at the top in some Arctic streams.

They are bioindicators, this means they can be used to assess the biological quality of an ecosystem, since families have different tolerance to pollutants (pesticides, heavy metals, etc).

They can provide information about the climatic conditions of past eras (paleoecology).

They can be used to "clean" eutrophicated systems (those with an excess of nutrients that leads to algal blooms and depletion of oxygen).

Why this website?

European and British invertebrate fauna have been widely studied since the XIX century, but there are still many taxa to be described in Arctic, Tropical and Neotropical areas.

On this website you will find pictures of specimens from regions as remote as Kamchatka, Alaska, Greenland, Svalbard or Iceland, and I'm planning to add specimens from Africa soon.

I also included some pictures of specimens from the UK and the Iberian peninsula that I considered to be interesting, and terrestrial specimens that are commonly found in or near aquatic ecosystems.

Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting
Brisbane (Australia)

3-7 June 2023 

NEWS

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