In December 2020, the e3s ecology team had the pleasure of hosting a Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Identification Workshop lead by distinguished guests, Yvonne and John Stark. This workshop aimed to enhance and diversify e3s staffs’ macroinvertebrate identification skills through hands-on professional development with leading specialists in this field. Yvonne and John are two of New Zealand’s foremost macroinvertebrate experts with over 40 years’ experience and now owner-operate Stark Environmental Limited. Among describing and characterising many species, they have also helped develop New Zealand macroinvertebrate sampling standards and the Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI). Today, the MCI is widely used as an essential monitoring tool as it assigns values to individual species, according to their tolerance to environmental stressors, which then forms a combined score that indicates freshwater quality and stream health.
The e3s ecology team were honoured to spend an enlightening day with these two leading experts and gained significant and invaluable knowledge to better enhance our own in-house macroinvertebrate identification skills.