What are freshwater macroinvertebrates?
We can define them as those animals that lack a backbone (internal skeleton), and are visible to the naked eye (larger than 0.5 mm or 500 micrometres), and can be found in freshwater ecosystems: ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
Some of the major groups under this broad definition are: Annelida, Crustacea, Insecta, Mollusca, and Turbellaria.
Microcrustaceans (Cladocera, Copepoda, and Ostracoda) and meiofauna, such as Gastrotricha, Rotifera, and Tardigrada, are typically not included in the definition of freshwater macroinvertebrates.
Why are they important?
They form part of the trophic chain, fish and other invertebrates feed on them. In some Arctic streams they can be at the top of the chain .
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 (palaeoecology).
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, particularly in Tropical and Oriental regions, but also immature stages in the Holarctic.
This website not only helps me to showcase my work on specimens from very remote regions (such as Kamchatka, Alaska, Greenland, Svalbard, Iceland and Africa), but also allows me to share my publications, along with loads of free books and keys in the 'resources' section.
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