As part of a study on the impact of climate change on small rivers, Groupe d’éducation et d’écosurveillance de l’eau (G3E) is seeking the expertise of BIOS² program members to conduct an initial data analysis using the results of SurVol Benthos stations.
SurVol Benthos: the global health of small rivers in Quebec
SurVol Benthos is a monitoring program that relies on macroinvertebrates as a bioindicator of the overall health of small, coarse-substrate streams. By combining scientific rigor, G3E expertise, and close collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MELCC), the program allows people with little or no experience with benthic macroinvertebrates to make a scientific diagnosis of the overall health of their river stream.
Source : G3E
The working group
The objective of the working group is to establish a baseline of small stream health across the province of Quebec. Workshop participants will be asked to work in teams to develop a summary report of this diversity baseline that will be used by SurVol Benthos to monitor climate impacts on small stream biodiversity.
During this working group, BIOS² members will participate in the consultation process with a non-governmental organization (G3E). This process offers several learning opportunities, including collaborative skills in developing tools and products to meet G3E’s needs, communication skills for explaining and interpreting the tools throughout the process, and technical skills related to formulating, analyzing, and visualizing a baseline portrait of macroinvertebrate diversity in a way that responds to G3E’s priorities and needs.
The workshop will be conducted in 5 weekly sessions, every Wednesday from 1:00 to 4:00 pm EST starting January 20, 2021. An additional week will be allocated to the completion of the summary report, which will de delivered to G3E on February 24th, 2021. Between sessions, participants will have a mandate to complete as a team before the next meeting, representing a maximum of 2 to 3 additional hours of work per week (e.g. literature review, preparing a short presentation, etc.).
The preliminary schedule for the working group is as follows:
Session 1 : Introduction to the study and forming teams
Session 2 : Literature review and establishing research questions
Session 3 : Brainstorm of analyses and visualisations for the summary report
Session 4 : Team work on analyses and visualisations
Session 5 : Presentation of results to G3E
February 24th 2021 : Submission of the deliverable (summary report) to G3E
The workshop will be held in French, but all BIOS² members are encouraged to participate. We will provide bilingual materials wherever possible, and will organize the breakout groups according to the language preference of the participants.
Register here 1
Registration deadline: January 4, 2021
For more information, please contact info.bios2@usherbrooke.ca or katherine.hebert@usherbrooke.ca
1 Link to form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=RIdaOjVZ-UWUI7MsOl3gglu8ZFMLDh5KkUkCaGZND7BUQ1FVSE5QRkFVUEU4SjRSM0VOQjczSDNWVS4u