Background
Small streams in Finland are significantly impacted by pressures from agriculture and forestry, yet their ecological status has been insufficiently monitored. There is no up-to-date overall picture of how stream conditions are changing, and the effectiveness of restoration measures is still poorly understood.
Objectives
The project aims to monitor the status of streams in a long-term and systematic way. Monitoring is based on repeated multi-year sampling and a BACI (Before–After–Control–Impact) design, which enables assessment of restoration effects by comparing conditions before and after measures, as well as against control sites.
The monitoring network covers approximately 48 sites and generates data that can be used, for example, in restoration planning, biodiversity conservation, and the development of water management.
The variables monitored include water quality, habitat characteristics such as the amount of submerged woody debris and variation in flow conditions, and the biological status. The monitored biological groups include diatoms, benthic macroinvertebrates, aquatic mosses, and at some sites also fish.
Results
The monitoring data generated by the project will be stored in national information systems: species data in systems such as POHJE, PIIRE, laji.fi and KOKARE, and water quality data in the VESLA system. The results will also be published as scientific articles in national and international journals
More information
Project leader Mari Annala, Finnish Environment Institute Syke, phone +358 29 525 1797, firstname.surname@syke.fi