New Masters student adding value to CRIMP

Thomas Hobson (University of Glasgow) is undertaking his first MRes project on CRIMP, supervised by the Clyde River Foundation. His project sets out to determine the accuracy of CRIMP data (by looking at the sources of error in the sampling and analysis of the samples, which will be done by assessing the initial bankside assessment of CRIMP invertebrate samples compared to a later, more detailed laboratory assessment of the same samples by Thomas). Thomas intends to answer a number of questions regarding CRIMP:

1.      How does the discriminatory power of the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (RMI) method compare with that of classical community indices used by regulatory agencies?

2.      Does the RMI method describe the macroinvertebrate community in a kick sample adequately?

3.      What is the relationship between Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) and RMI methodologies?

Thomas will be looking at the first samples taken by CRIMPers throughout the summer, when accompanied by Project Coordinator Lesley. If you have any data from your kick sample sites that you still need to send in, please email them to lesley.deans@glasgow.ac.uk. Thank you!