New study shows English rivers exhibiting increased chemical stress and declining invertebrate diversity
WildFish, RSPB, Buglife and The Pesticide Collaboration have released a new report: “Chemical Pollution: The Silent Killer o...
This blog discusses the new report from Wildfish, RSPB, Buglife and the Pesticide Collaboration called Chemical Pollution: The Silent Killer of UK Rivers.
“The most alarming of all man’s assaults on the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials”
Chemicals feature heavily in our everyday lives. From cleaning products, to medicines and even the food we eat. Using chemicals has a variety of benefits, but when they leak into the environment they can pollute air, soil and water with catastrophic effects. Chemicals can persevere in the environment for weeks, months or even years, and can cause significant harm to wildlife on land, in freshwater and in the sea.
Chemicals are just one pollutant threatening our freshwater ecosystems. Sewage, plastic, excess nutrients and waste from farmland all contribute to the dire state of our rivers. Environment Agency data from 2020 showed that all English rivers failed to meet overall quality tests for pollution. Not a single river achieved good chemical status, and only 14% of rivers in England achieved good ecological status.
Aquatic invertebrates spend most, if not all, of their lives in rivers. Over this time they are directly exposed to the conditions of the water, and often need good water quality to reach maturity. This makes them brilliant indicators of water quality, and so we can learn a lot about a river from how they are faring.
At Wildfish we recently published the 2021 Riverfly Census results. This is a national survey covering 12 English rivers, monitoring aquatic invertebrates as a way to indicate what pressures our freshwater systems are under. Riverflies in particular are a vitally important part of the freshwater ecosystem, including in their role as food for birds, mammals and fish. Wildfish, RSPB, Buglife and the Pesticide Collaboration have published a report looking at some of this survey data in more detail, to better understand the impact chemical pollution is having on our rivers.
Using the Species At Risk (SPEAR) measure, our analysis showed clearly that in autumn, the number of rivers scoring ‘poor’ or ‘bad’ on the chemical stress scale was considerably greater in 2021 than in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
This strongly suggests the problem is getting worse. But the level of chemical stress on its own doesn’t tell us what is happening to biodiversity. A variety of species, rather than just a high number of individuals of one or two species, is what we’re looking for in a healthy system.
The Riverfly Census also looked at the number of caddisfly, mayfly and stonefly species present across all the sample sites per year. WildFish found that in both spring and autumn, 2021 had significantly fewer numbers of species than the previous survey years – showing that in addition to greater chemical stress being indicated, the diversity of key invertebrate species also appears to be decreasing.
One of the key solutions to address the water quality crisis is tackling the pollution that comes from agricultural sources – 40% of waterbodies are failing to achieve good status because of agriculture. There are some important actions the Government could take to address this specific issue:
Other recommendations for addressing chemical pollution are:
Evidence is clear that our freshwater habitats are suffering from a multitude of threats. Stopping pollution at source is better than removing it once it’s there – in other words, prevention is better than cure. This means reducing reliance on chemicals in general, but also having sufficient enforcement so that it acts as a deterrent to would-be polluters. We are in a biodiversity crisis, and we must act urgently.
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