Rivers – Benthic Invertebrates

Benthic invertebrate communities are good indicators of organic enrichment and can be used to assess river water quality. Benthic invertebrates are also sensitive to toxic pollutants and the general degradation of the river. They are ideally suited to biological monitoring as they are common, widespread and easily sampled. This method is based on the principle that different benthic invertebrates have different tolerances topollutants.