Freshwater samples in MZNA-INV-FRW: Macroinvertebrate samples from the water quality monitoring network along the Ebro Basin

Sampling event
Latest version published by University of Navarra – Department of Environmental Biology on Dec 10, 2021 University of Navarra – Department of Environmental Biology

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 1,776 records in English (6 MB) - Update frequency: as needed
Metadata as an EML file download in English (74 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (33 KB)

Description

This dataset gathers information about the macroinvertebrate samples collected on rivers and streams of the Ebro River Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula), the second largest catchment in the Iberian Peninsula. The aim was to use freshwater macroinvertebrates to calculate the biological indices required to evaluate the ecological status of the open water bodies within this basin. This dataset is a part of a monitoring network set up by the Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro (hereinafter CHE). This network was established to fulfill the requirements of the European Water Framework Directive (hereinafter WFD).

The collection is composed of 1776 sampling events carried out between 2005 and 2015 at more than 400 sampling sites. Environmental variables at each sampling site were also recorded to characterise the habitat, and can be found in the MeasurementOrFacts extension (eMoF) uploaded along with the sampling event dataset. All measurements were obtained from the CHE portal (CHE, 2017).

The Museum of Zoology of the University of Navarra (hereinafter MZNA) curates the material obtained during these samplings. Samples were qualitatively screened for all occurring taxa, and all individuals from all taxa in a quantitative subsample of each sample were counted. Biological indices were calculated to estimate water quality at each sampling site. An occurrence extension is also available gathering the abundance of each taxon within the dataset.

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 1,776 records.

2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

Event (core)
1776
Occurrence 
266400
MeasurementOrFacts 
13020

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

MZNA (2017): Freshwater samples in MZNA-INV-FRW: Macroinvertebrates samples from the water quality monitoring network from the Ebro Basin. v1.2. University of Navarra, Museum of Zoology. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://doi.org/10.15470/gkiznu

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is University of Navarra – Department of Environmental Biology. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: dfddad59-5bc5-4e35-8b35-334eed43bba9.  University of Navarra – Department of Environmental Biology publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Spain.

Keywords

Samplingevent; Freshwater macroinvertebrates; Ebro River Basin; Biotic indices; Iberian Peninsula; Water quality; Water Framework Directive; Samplingevent

Contacts

MZNA Museum of Zoology, University of Navarra
  • Originator
Institution
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600
Nora Escribano
  • Metadata Provider
PhD student
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600
Control del Estado de las Masas de Agua Superficiales
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
Institution
Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro
ES
David Galicia
  • Point Of Contact
Professor
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600
Arturo H Ariño
  • Custodian Steward
  • Point Of Contact
Professor
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600
Javier Oscoz
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Researcher
University of Navarra
Navarra
ES
MZNA Museum of Zoology
  • Curator
Institution
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600
Concha Durán
  • Author
Project management
Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro
ES
Patricia Navarro
  • Author
Project management
Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro
Ana Amezcua
  • Curator
Technician
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600
Ángel Chaves
  • Curator
Technician
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600
María Imas
  • Curator
Technician
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600
Rafael Miranda
  • Point Of Contact
Professor
University of Navarra
Irunlarrea, 1
31008 Pamplona
Navarra
ES
948425600

Geographic Coverage

The spatial coverage of this dataset comprises the Ebro River Basin.

Bounding Coordinates South West [40.363, -4], North East [43.3, 2.769]

Taxonomic Coverage

150 taxa were recorded in the Ebro River Basin belonging to 141 families, 31, orders, 14 classes and 9 phyla.

Phylum Annelida, Arthropoda, Bryozoa, Cnidaria, Mollusca, Nematoda, Nematomorpha, Platyhelminthes, Porifera
Class Arachnida, Bivalvia, Branchiopoda, Clitellata, Demospongiae, Gastropoda, Gordioida, Hydrozoa, Insecta, Malacostraca, Maxillopoda, Ostracoda, Rhabditophora
Order Amphipoda, Anthoathecatae, Arhynchobdellida, Branchiobdellida, Coleoptera, Collembola, Cycloneritimorpha, Decapoda, Diplostraca, Diptera, Ephemeroptera, Gordioidea, Hemiptera, Hygrophila, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Megaloptera, Isopoda, Littorinimorpha, Neuroptera, Odonata, Plecoptera, Trichoptera, Rhynchobdellida, Trombidiformes, Unionoida, Veneroida, Seriata, Spongillidae, Stylommatophora
Family Aeschnidae, Ichneumonidae, Ancylidae, Anthomyiidae, Aphelocheiridae, Asellidae, Astacidae, Athericidae, Atydae, Baetidae, Beraeidae, Bithyniidae, Blephariceridae, Brachycentridae, Branchiobdellidae, Caenidae, Calamoceratidae, Calopterygidae, Cambaridae, Capniidae, Ceratopogonidae, Chaoboridae, Chironomidae, Chloroperlidae, Chrysomelidae, Clambidae, Coenagrionidae, Corbiculidae, Cordulegrastridae, Corduliidae, Corixidae, Corophidae, Culicidae, Curculionidae, Dendrocoelidae, Dixidae, Dolichopodidae, Dreissenidae, Dryopidae, Dugesiidae, Dytiscidae, Ecnomidae, Elmidae, Empididae, Ephemerellidae, Ephemeridae, Ephydridae, Erpobdellidae, Gammaridae, Gerridae, Glossiphoniidae, Glossosomatidae, Goeridae, Gomphidae, Gordiidae, Gyrinidae, Haemopidae, Haliplidae, Hebridae, Helophoridae, Heptageniidae, Hirudinidae, Hydraenidae, Hydridae, Hydrobiidae, Hydrochidae, Hydrometridae, Hydrophilidae, Hydropsychidae, Hydroptilidae, Hygrobiidae, Lepidostomatidae, Leptoceridae, Leptophlebiidae, Lestidae, Leuctridae, Libellulidae, Limnephilidae, Limoniidae, Lymnaeidae, Mesoveliidae, Molannidae, Muscidae, Naucoridae, Nemouridae, Nepidae, Neritidae, Niphargidae, Noteridae, Notonectidae, Odontoceridae, Oligoneuriidae, Osmylidae, Palaemonidae, Pediciidae, Perlidae, Perlodidae, Philopotamidae, Phrygaenidae, Physidae, Piscicolidae, Planariidae, Planorbidae, Platycnemididae, Pleidae, Poduridae, Polycentropodidae, Polymitarcidae, Potamanthidae, Prosopistomatidae, Psephenidae, Psychodidae, Psychomyiidae, Ptychopteridae, Rhagionidae, Rhyacophilidae, Sciomyzidae, Scirtidae, Sericostomatidae, Sialidae, Simuliidae, Siphlonuridae, Sisyridae, Sphaeriidae, Spongillidae, Stratiomyidae, Succineidae, Syrphidae, Tabanidae, Taeniopterygidae, Thaumaleidae, Thiaridae, Unionidae, Tipulidae, Unionidae, Valvatidae, Veliidae, Viviparidae, Arrenuridae, Pyralidae, Thremmatidae
Genus Ancylus, Corbicula, Dreissena, Ferrissia, Hydra, Pacifastacus, Podura, Procambarus, Hydracarina

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2005-07-04 / 2015-09-23

Project Data

This project aimed to assess the ecological status of the surface water bodies of Ebro River Basin using biotic and hidromorphological indices. The CHE was the organism in charge of implementing this monitoring network following the indications given by the Water Frame Directive (European Parliament & European Council, 2000). The “Control del Estado de las Masas de Agua Superficiales” (hereinafter CEMAS) was the monitoring network established to evaluate the water quality using biological indices. This project mainly consisted of seasonal samplings in each year from 2005 onwards to study physical-chemical and biological parameters of the open water bodies. Aquatic macroinvertebrates were sampled to calculate the biotic indices. This dataset is the corrected output of this monitoring network. At the time of writingthe monitoring network is operational and the samplings are ongoing.

Title Explotación de la red de Control Ecológico de Ríos en la Cuenca del Ebro en aplicación de la Directiva Marco del Agua [Assesment of ecological status of rivers in the Ebro Basin under the Water Framework Directive]
Funding Ministerio de Agricultura y Pesca, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente. Gobierno de España.
Study Area Description The Ebro River Basin is situated in the Northeast of Spain (Western Europe) and drains an area of 85.362 km2. It extends from the western Pyrenees to the south of the Iberian Mountains and the Catalonian coast, discharging into the Mediterranean Sea near Tortosa at the Ebro Delta. Its main 702 tributaries run for an accumulate 12000 km. The prevailing climate of the basin is Mediterranean with 620 mm precipitation per year. A total of 906 000 ha is dedicated to irrigated crops (CHE, 2017).
Design Description This monitoring network was designed according to the criteria set up by the WFD. Before the implementation of the WFD, the CHE had already been conducting macroinvertebratesamplings to evaluate the water quality. Nevertheless, in 2005 the CHE changed the previous monitoring network design to adapt it to the new guidelines of the WFD (Jáimez-Cuéllar et al., 2006; CHE, 2017) in such a way that the data obtained could be comparable to other monitoring networks. For detailed information of the monitoring network consult the annual reports (CHE, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)

The personnel involved in the project:

Pedro Tomás
  • Originator
Concha Durán
  • Principal Investigator
Patricia Navarro
  • Principal Investigator

Sampling Methods

1. Fieldwork At each sampling site, five types of habitats were selected: hard substrates, plant debris, bank bordered by vegetation, submerged macrophytes (if present), sand and other fine sediments. Once identified the microhabitats and the area occupied by each one, the sampling units (kicks) were distributed proportionally to the area of each habitat in the section. As a general rule, twenty sampling units were used. Macroinvertebrates were collected using a hand-net (25 cm x 25 cm aperture, 500-µm-mesh size). In each sampling unit (kick), the substrate was removed 0.5 m in front of the mouth of the net. The final sampled area resulting from the twenty sampling units was approximately 2.5 m2. Samples were fixed in 4% buffered formaldehyde, stored in plastic sealed jars, labeled and brought to the laboratory. Simultaneously, electrical conductivity (precision 1 µS/cm), dissolved oxygen (precision 0.01 mg/L), temperature (precision 0.1°C) and pH were measured using a multi-parameter water quality monitoring system (WTW Multi 340i) at each sampling. Each instrument was calibrated daily during the sampling period. 2. Laboratory work Samples were transported to the laboratory for analysis. The samples were sieved through 5 mm, 1 mm and 0,5 mm mesh sieves. Then, the material was washed with abundant running water, separating the organisms from the remaining debris, gravel, and sand. Finally, the sample was divided into the respective fractions of the sieves: •5mm fraction: all organisms were identified to the taxon level required by the IBMWP index and counted. •1 mm and 0.5 mm fractions: organisms were identified to the taxon level required for the IBMWP index. Samples were divided into subsamples (eg., one-quarter size) and organisms from one subsample were counted.Total abundance of each taxon was estimated from the subsample counts. The remaining sample (eg., the uncounted three-quarters of the sample) was examined for families not caught in the subsample, but organisms were not counted. For further details, see Wrona, Culp & Davies, 1982. •Finally, all the material was stored in plastic jars with 70°ethlyl alcohol, labeled and stored at the MZNA facilities. After processing the samples, the IBMWP and IASPT scores were calculated (Alba-Tercedor, J., P. Jaimez-Cuellar et al., 2002). More details of the sampling protocol can be found in “Protocolo De Muestreo Y Laboratorio De Fauna Bentónica De Invertebrados En Ríos Vadeables” (MAGRAMA, 2013). The environmental variables, the biological indices, and the occurrences can be found in the MeasurementsOrFacts and Occurrence extensions respectively, uploaded together with the Sampling Event dataset.

Study Extent The Ebro River Basin is situated in the Northeast of the Spain (Western Europe) and drains an area of 85.362 km2. It is the second largest catchment in the Iberian Peninsula and has 702 tributaries and 110 lakes. from the western Pyrenees to the south of the Iberian Mountains, discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. The prevailing climate of the basin is Mediterranean with an average yearly precipitation of 620 mm. The basin hosts a large number of ecosystems from the head of the Ebro River to its mouth. Eurosiberian communities (beech, grasslands) dominate the highest part of the river whereas Mediterranean ones take over in the middle region until the mouth. The water uses of the basin are principally urban water supply, livestock, farming, and industry. However, the highest water consumption comes from agriculture (4,574 hm3/year) dedicated to 906,000 ha of irrigated crops. Samplings were carried out annually from late spring to early autumn when macroinvertebrate communities reach their highest diversity, although samplings could be postponed to summer in the case of unfavorable environmental conditions such as high rainfall in elevated areas (e.g., the Pyrenees). Likewise, in the event of floods, samplings were conducted 15 days after the incident.Temporary streams were sampled when the conditions were optimal, that is, in the presence of running water. A total of 473 sampling sites belonging to the CEMAS network were sampled from 2005 to 2015. Each sampling site covered a selected 100-m segment of the river having the essential habitats of that river’s stretch. Therefore, all the data obtained was assumed to be representative of that stretch of the river, and all variety of habitats were sampled. The following features were taken into account for selecting a segment: •The presence of rapid-slow running water. •Fluvial Morphology. For example, natural courses were chosen over channeled water. •Vegetation cover. Shady areas were avoided if they were not characteristic of the stretch. •Areas near bridges and weirs were avoided unless they were representative of the stretch. •Accessibility. Sampling sites were accessible and crossable.
Quality Control Specimen identification was carried by Javier Oscoz using suitable literature (Tachet et al., 2000; Oscoz, Galicia & Miranda, 2011). Scientific names were validated according to the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy (GBIF, 2017). All samples were fully analyzed for the entire range of potential taxa. Taxon absences recorded in the dataset are thus true absences as regards to the taxa listed in the IBMWP indices. The MZNA stores samples from 2005 to 2015 derived from the monitoring network. Field data was digitalized and incorporated into the MZNA database (Ariño, 1991). Unique accession numbers were assigned to each sample. The dataset was standardized to the Darwin Core standards. Guidelines by Chapman (2005) were followed to check for taxonomical, geographical and temporal errors in the dataset. Coordinates in UTM/MGRS were transformed to the geographic system. The consistency of all records was inspected by overlapping sampling site coordinates with a map of the Ebro Basin (CHE, 2017). The entire process of debugging the dataset was done with R version 3.3.2 (R Core Team, 2016). Packages used included rgdal (Pebesma, Sumner & Hijmans, 2013), sp (Pebesma & Bivand, 2005) for geographic data and reshape2 (Wickham, 2007) for handling with the dataset.

Method step description:

  1. Selection of sampling sites. The list of sampling sites for each year was given by the CHE.
  2. Microhabitat selection at each sampling site.
  3. Measurement of environmental variables including electrical conductivity, water temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen.
  4. Macroinvertebrate sampling by sweeping in the five microhabitats, proportionally to the microhabitat cover. Samples fixed with 4% buffered formaldehyde.
  5. Sampling processing in the laboratory: identification of taxon, count of the number of individuals per taxon and calculation of biotic indices including IBMWP and IASP.
  6. Sample storage in the MZNA facilities.
  7. Digitalization of the data in the MZNA database.
  8. Standardisation of the dataset to Darwin Core standards and publication through the Integrated Publishing Toolkit.

Collection Data

Collection Name Invertebrados de agua dulce del Museo de Zoología de la Universidad de Navarra
Parent Collection Identifier http://www.gbif.es/ic_colecciones.php?ID_Coleccion=10208
Specimen preservation methods Alcohol
Curatorial Units Count 1,776 +/- 1 Sealed plastic jars with 70° ethyl alcohol

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Alba-Tercedor, J., P. Jaimez-Cuellar P., Lvarez M a., Avile´s J., Bonada N., Casas J., Mellado a., Ortega M., Pardo I., Prat N., Rieradevall M., Robles S., Sainz-Cantero CE., Sanchez-Ortega a., Suarez ML., Toro M., Vidal-Abarca MR., Vivas S., Zamora-Munoz C. 2002. Caracterizacion del estado ecologico de rıos mediterraneos ibericos mediante el ındice IBMWP (antes BMWP’). Limnetica 21:175–185.
  2. Ariño AH. 1991. Bibliography of Iberian polychaetes: A data base. Ophelia Suppl. 5:647–652.
  3. Chapman AD. 2005. Principles and methods of data cleaning. Copenhagen.
  4. CHE. 2005. Control del estado de las masas de agua superficiales - Informe de situación Año 2005. Technical report.
  5. CHE. 2006. Red De Control Biológico En Ríos Informe Final Ríos Año 2006. Technical report.
  6. CHE. 2007. Red de Control Biológico en Ríos Informe Final Ríos Año 2007. Technical report.
  7. CHE. 2008. Red de Control Biológico en Ríos Informe Final Ríos Año 2008. Technical report.
  8. CHE. 2009. Red de Control Biológico en Ríos Informe Final Ríos 2009. Technical report.
  9. CHE. 2010. Red de Control Biológico en Ríos Informe Final Ríos Año 2010. Technical report.
  10. CHE. 2011. Red de Control Biológico en Ríos Informe Final Ríos Año 2011. Technical report.
  11. CHE. 2012. Explotación de la red de control operativo y de referencia de ríos en la cuenca del ebro en aplicación de la directiva marco del agua. Technical report.
  12. CHE. 2013. Explotación de la red de control ecológico de ríos en la cuenca del ebro en aplicación de la directiva marco del agua. Technical report.
  13. CHE. 2014. Explotación de la red de control ecológico de ríos de la cuencua del Ebro en aplicación de la Directiva Marco del Agua. Technical report.
  14. CHE. 2015. Explotación de la red de control ecológico de ríos de la cuencua del Ebro en aplicación de la Directiva Marco del Agua. Technical report.
  15. CHE. 2017.Información Básica de la Cuenca del Ebro. Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro (CHE): Datis climatológicos. Available at http://www.chebro.es (accessed June 24, 2017).
  16. European Parliament & European Council. 2000. Directive 2000/60/EC.
  17. GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist Dataset. doi:10.15468/39omei. Accessed via http://www.gbif.org/species/5284517 on 23th October 2017
  18. Jáimez-Cuéllar P., Luzón-Ortega J., Palomino-Morales JA., Alba-Tercedor J. 2006. Evaluación Del Estado Ecológico De Los Cursos De Agua . Implicaciones Sobre La Obtención De Datos ( Abundancia ) Según La Directiva Marco Del Agua . :1–59.
  19. MAGRAMA. 2013. Protocolo De Muestreo Y Laboratorio De Fauna Bentónica De Invertebrados En Ríos Vadeables. (ML-Rv-I-2013). :23.
  20. Oscoz J., Galicia D., Miranda R. 2011. Identification Guide of Freshwater Macroinvertebrates of Spain. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-1554-7.
  21. Pebesma EJ., Bivand R. 2005. Classes and methods for spatial data in R. News 5.
  22. Pebesma E., Sumner M., Hijmans R. 2013. Package ’ rgdal ’.
  23. R Core Team. 2016. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
  24. Tachet H., Richoux P., Bournaud M., Usseglio-Polatera P. 2000. Invertébrés d’eau douce. Systématique, Biologie.
  25. Wickham H. 2007. Reshaping Data with the reshape Package. Journal of Statistical Software 21:1–20.

Additional Metadata

The Museum of Zoology (MZNA) was founded in 1980 as a repository of zoological materials originating from research and instructional activities of the Department of Environmental Biology (previously known as the Department of Zoology and Ecology) of the University of Navarra. MZNA stores several million specimens in its climate-controlled facilities. The Museum is a Data Provider for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and is an Affiliate of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). The Museum is also in charge of the curation and management of the Natural History Collections of the School of Science of the University of Navarra (Spain). MZNA is open to researchers around the world, makes loans and accepts deposits.

Purpose The aim of the present dataset is to provide all information from the CEMAS project conducted in the Ebro River Basin from 2005 to 2015.
Maintenance Description The dataset is closed. The regular maintenance of the database may involve a modification of some metadata related with sampling information. On the other hand, this dataset offers information of samples that may be re-analyzed. Any researcher interested in macroinvertebrates can contact the MZNA to have access to the samples. New versions of the dataset will be published when required.
Alternative Identifiers doi:10.15470/gkiznu
dfddad59-5bc5-4e35-8b35-334eed43bba9
https://ipt.gbif.es/resource?r=macro-invert-che