The main threat to surface water quality in Ireland and much of Western Europe is eutrophication, due to the excessive inputs of agricultural- and municipal-derived plant nutrients. Such nutrients have widespread
ecological effects, notably the increased growth of aquatic plants and algae. Under the terms of the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD), participating nations, including Ireland, must achieve good water status for all surface waters by 2015. Some 30% of Irish running waters currently fail to meet this objective, largely due to eutrophication, and require significant efforts to bring them to the required standard. Although the quantitative relationships between nutrient levels, primary producers and their
consumers are reasonably well established for
standing waters, scientific understanding of these links in running waters is weaker, due to their greater environmental complexity. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationships between plant nutrients, primary producers and their invertebrate consumers in running waters and to identify the main factors that affect this relationship.

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Sturt, M.M.   "IMPLANT: The Impact of Plant Nutrients on Primary Productivity in Running Waters : Evaluating the Risk of Stream Ecological Status". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=bffc78ba-ef9e-11e2-8c2d-005056ae0019 (Last Accessed: 2025-01-20)

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SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=3013
Resource Keywords	IMPACT Water Stream Nutrient
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	2005-W-MS-39-M1
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Water Quality
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	The reliability, quality and completeness of data gained through SAFER-Data is intended to be used in an education or research context. These data are not guaranteed for use in operational or decision-making settings. The EPA and SAFER-Data requests an acknowledgement (in publications, conference papers, etc) from those who use data/information received with SAFER-Data. This acknowledgement should state the original creators of the data/information. An automated citation is provided below. It is not ethical to publish data/information without proper attribution or co-authorship. The data/information are the intellectual property of the collecting investigator(s). The data/information may be freely downloaded and used by all who respect the restrictions and requirements in the previous paragraphs.
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	2
Project Start Date	Thursday 28th February 2008 (28-02-2008)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Thursday 28th February 2008 (28-02-2008)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Sunday 28th March 2010 (28-03-2010)
Published on SAFER	Thursday 18th July 2013 (18-07-2013)
Date of Last Edit	Thursday 18th July 2013 at 12:41:04 (18-07-2013)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Thursday 18th July 2013 at 12:41:04 (18-07-2013)

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Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
Two sets of streams were chosen for descriptive studies. A first set of 32 streams was chosen to represent a wide range of nutrient concentrations characteristic of the streams in southwest Ireland. A second, smaller set of six streams was selected for the study on the interactive effects of nutrients and riparian canopy shade. Within a single 300-m stretch in each of these streams, the Delahinagh, Ell, Bride, Adabullane, Shournagh and Gortnalour, 10 distinct patches were identified that present a gradient of riparian canopy density (canopy openness). manipulative experiments were performed in a single stream in County Cork ? the Owennagearagh, which possessed contingent reaches of strong contrasting nutrient status and high populations of grazers and filamentous algae. This stream was chosen to allow comparisons of grazing invertebrate communities and their effects on the colonisation and growth of filamentous algae at stream reaches above and below a waste-water treatment plant (WWTP) discharge pipe, which constantly released high levels of phosphate and ammonium, enriching the study reaches downstream.

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