Linking the presence of invasive alien species to measure of ecological quality

Tender description

Most of the tools we use to measure ecological status for the Water Framework Directive (WFD) have been developed to indicate pressures other than Invasive Non Native Species (INNS). Consequently they vary in their response to INNS. As other pressures are managed, we expect that underlying INNS impacts will become more visible. We would like you to undertake a comparison of the recorded presence of INNS with the ecological health of the site at which they are recorded and subsequently see whether any effect is reflected in our biological quality measures. The work aims to enable us to assess the impacts of invasive non-native species on ecology and on the ecological status of a water body as measured by the WFD. It should also improve our evidence base, enabling us to understand when our biological tools may have ‘missed’ an impact or provided a false signal, or which tools are likely to respond to which species.