Introduction to Reservoir Limnology and Biological Monitoring (online)
This short course covers biological, chemical and physical processes in drinking water supply reservoirs that need to be understood when managing these complex systems to minimise risk of poor water quality prior to abstraction to water treatment works.
The course will cover reservoir water and sediment processes, monitoring and analysis of data and methods for biological monitoring.
Enrol on this course
| Start date | Days and times |
|---|---|
| 8 May 2025 | 8 May and 15 May (each session 10:00 - 12:30) |
| Fee |
|---|
| £350 (2 x 2.5 hour sessions, starting at 10:00) |
Who it’s for
The course was requested by water industry staff and has been designed based on their needs and the experience of the staff delivering the course through long-term collaboration with water companies.
As a result the course is tailored to facilitate knowledge exchange needed by water company staff involved in all aspects of water quality and monitoring, including reservoir managers, catchment scientists etc, as well as those in research and innovation and data analytics teams.
What you’ll learn
Participants will learn the key processes that impact on biological and chemical water quality risks within a reservoir and methods that can be used to monitor these risks to enable better predication of water quality events (Taste and Odour, algal blooms, manganese etc.) as well as how to use these data to evidence intervention solutions where practical to do so.
The course is split into two parts: i) reservoir biological, chemical and physical processes; ii) reservoir monitoring with molecular biological methods.
The course is delivered as a collaboration between the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University.
Topics covered
Session 1: Reservoir processes
- Overview of reservoir food webs, key types of species, what controls their abundance and how do these different groups of organisms affect water quality.
- Key nutrients in the water column; what needs to be measured and how these can be better analysed.
- Sediment chemical and physical processes: the factors controlling internal nutrient, iron and manganese loadings; impacts of mixing; mass balance analysis to determine relative source apportionment.
- Linking the data to water quality risks and hence approaches to using data for risk prediction and determining intervention solutions.
- Future management: impacts of climate change and ecosystem approaches using nature-based solutions.
Session 2: Biological Monitoring using molecular methods
- Principles of molecular analysis; the basics.
- Overview of eDNA; from sample collection to data output.
- Visualising and interpreting eDNA data; how to understand and use your datasets.
- Other sequencing methods and their applications.
Benefits
The course is unique in that it has been developed based upon a real understanding of the challenges facing water companies regarding limitations to monitoring balanced with the need to understand reservoir limnology to evidence solutions and predict problems.
In this way the course aims to empower water industry staff with the knowledge to better judge if engineered solutions are the right option, if catchment management can reduce risk, if nature-based solutions work, if there are solutions or whether treatment is the better option, and understand how things change in a changing climate.
The course will provide an introduction to the knowledge and ways in which to monitor and analyse reservoir data to achieve this.
Teaching and useful information
This course will be delivered online, using Microsoft Teams.
Course details, learning materials, and any additional information will be provided two weeks before the start date. This course will be conducted online. You’ll need a computer with a stable internet connection, a camera, and the ability to access Microsoft Teams.
This is a basic introductory course running over two 2.5 hour sessions. Total duration is therefore 5 hours.
The two sessions will be run with a week's gap between them and delivered by two staff: Professor Rupert Perkins and Dr Sophie Watson.
