SOME SAMPLE SITE DESCRIPTIONS

Ecological Water Quality Assessment of the Glendasan River, Co.Wicklow. 0

You may describe each site separately (example 1) or describe/compare specific
features across sites (samples 2 and 3).

EXAMPLE 1
Site Characteristics
The study sites were located on two systems, the Mighty River and Glendoo
Brook.
Site 1
The Mighty River rises at 453 m above sea level in Tibradden Mountains and
flows in an easterly direction before joining the Blackwater downstream of
Blackrock. The study site (GPS xxxxx) on this river was located in a nature
reserve where the riparian vegetation is dominated by deciduous woodland
consisting mainly of ash (Fraxinus excelsior), hazel (Corylus avellana) and alder
(Alnus glutinosa) trees. Here the river was 18.5 m wide with an average depth of
250 mm. Instream run habitat (80%) dominated and benthic substrates consisted
largely of sand (50%) and silt(30%), with some gravel (15%) and isolated cobbles
(5%) (Table X).

Site 2
The Glendoo Brook rises at 410 m in the Highland Mountains and flows for 20 km
in an easterly direction to the sea at Newpoint. The study site (GPS xxxx) was
located in the headwaters at 2km from the source (Fig. X). Thus, the width
( 4.2m)and depth (15am) were less than at Site 1. However, flow was faster with
predominately riffle (50%) and run (30%) habitat. Substrates were embedded
and consisted largely of cobbles (70%), gravel (15%) and sand (15%) (Table X).
the riparian zone and adjacent land were covered with moorland vegetation ,
mainly Mollinia caerulea and Calluna vulgaris.

Note: I have tried to vary the wording a little for each site
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EXAMPLE 2

The Glendasan River is part of the Avonmore/Avonbeg River system. It joins the
Avonmore River downstream of Laragh Village near Ballard Bridge. The
characteristics of the two sites sampled on the Glendasan are given in Table 1.
Both sites were comparable in width, however the downstream site was slightly
deeper than upstream largely due to a higher pool area. In contrast to Site 1
which was dominated by coarse benthic substrates, the downstream site had a
higher representation of the finer substrates (50% sand/silt) and a higher cover of
aquatic vegetation, mainly moss. The riparian vegetation at both sites consisted
mainly of birch (Betula sp.), willow (Salix sp.) and gorse (Ulex sp.) with a good
ground cover of grasses and brambles.

Please note common name are in lower case and scientific names are in italics

Table 1 Characteristics of the two study sites on the Glendassan River.

Site 1 Site 2 Site 1 Site 2
Average width 9.0 10.0 Substrates % Composition
(m)
Average depth 0.20 0.30 Boulder 10
(m)
Instream Cobble 10 10
Mesohabitats
Riffle 10 5 Coarse gravel 60 30
Glide 40 40 Sand/silt 30 50
Run 40 15 Instream % Cover
Vegetation
Ecological Water Quality Assessment of the Glendasan River, Co.Wicklow. 1
Pool 10 40 10 70

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EXAMPLE 3

The investigations was carried out on the Duffy River which rises at 300m in the
Brown Mountains. It flows in a south-easterly direction before entering the sea at
Newpoint. The three study sites were located in the lower reaches of the river
within 2 km of the sea (Fig. X). They were comparable in average width and
depth. Stream width ranged from 1.5 to approximately 2m at the lowermost site.
Depth was fairly uniform ranging from 1.9 to 0.25 m. Flow was slow with
predominately canal type conditions at all but Site 1 which had a good
representation (50%) of riffle habitat. With the exception of Site 1 the stream
bottom was predominately mud, with just some coarse gravel (9<10%). Site 1
had a higher representation of cobble (25%) and gravel (15%). Riparian
vegetation was dominated by grasses (e.g. Phragmites sp.), and a variety of
herbaceous species. In stream the seaweed, Fucus sp. and green alga Ulva were
common at all but the uppermost site.

Ecological Water Quality Assessment of the Glendasan River, Co.Wicklow. 2