Citizen Science Evening - Brown Trout and Biofilms

We will be joined by Erin Doyle from Cranfield University who will share the outcomes from her PhD research into using biofilms to detect river pollution, including data collected by citizen scientists on the Chess and Misbourne. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms including algae and bacteria that coat rocks on riverbeds, and can be monitored to assess river health.

We will be sharing the results of our first redd surveys on the Chess, and be joined by Martin van Heerden from the Environment Agency to discuss the regional picture of brown trout breeding populations. ‘Redds’ are scrapes in the gravel river bed made by trout to lay their eggs, so surveying redds is a great way to assess numbers and locations of breeding trout.

This event is run by the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project as part of the River Chess Smarter Water Catchment partnership. It is free and open to everyone to come along to, whether or not you have been involved with any citizen science activities before!