Of course! When?
It’s certainly not my first time working on a canal based project, however when I heard there is an opportunity to get involved on restoration of the montgomery canal, there was an instant ‘of course! when?’
Locally known as ‘the Monty’ the canal is designated as Special Area of Conservation as well as Site of Special Scientific Interest. It’s a world’s bastion for rare floating water plantain Luronium natans.
This project was a part of a bigger baseline surveys before forther restoration works that will include reconstructing bridges, opening chocked channel for low level navigation that is needed for the important species or creating extensive wetland areas. The restoration is vital in securing the future of the canal.
Back to Aquatic Invertebrates...
Whilst sorting the sample, I was looking back to a time when I was assisting on the macrophyte survey of the canal with one of the UK’s experts in the field. Being able to learn water plants from an expert as a budding aquatic ecologist has certainly been a highlight of my early career.
Back in the lab, I identified aquatic invertebrate samples that were taken using a standard pond net. The list of species is too lenghty to include however the invertebrate community was well represented including expected groups of animals for ‘still to slow-moving waters’ such as freshwater shrimps, water slaters, snails, beetles, leeches, flatworms, midges and the list goes on…Just to show how much life is just beneath the surface!
The sample from nearby stream was represented by species living in clean waters, including mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies.
Plectrocnemia geniculata Caseless caddis
Athripsodes aterrimus Cased caddis
Triaenodes bicolor Cased caddis
Dytiscidae Diving water beetle
Hyphydrus ovatus Diving water beetle
Haliplus sp. Crawling water beetle
Noterus clavicornis Burrowing water beetle
The sample from nearby stream was represented by species living in clean waters, including mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies.
Species | Common name |
| Baetis rhodani/atlanticus | Large Dark Olive |
| Rhitrogena semicolorata | Olive Upright |
| Ecdyonurus sp. | Clinging Mayfly |
| Paraleptophlebia sp. | Prong-gilled Mayfly |
| Bithynia tentaculata | A Mud bithynia |
| Isoperla grammmatica | Common Yellow Sally |
| Nemoura avicularis | Small Brown |
| Pisidium sp. | A Pea mussel |
| Sericostoma personatum | Cased caddis |
| Halesus radiatus | Cased caddis |
| Crangonyx pseudogracilis/floridanus sens. lat. | An American Freshwater Shrimp |
| Gammarus pulex/fossarum agg. | Common freshwater shrimp |
| Chironomidae | A non-biting midge |
| Ceratopogonidae | A biting midge |
| Dicranota sp. | Hairy-eyed Crane Fly |
| Oligochaeta | A worm |
Needless to say, it has been a pleasure getting the ID keys out again and seeing what species are inhabiting this iconic canal and wetlands nearby!
