FRT are taking part in a water temperature monitoring project with Marine Scotland Science. We have deployed 20 temperature loggers in the Rivers Forth, Teith and Eas Cobain which will record water temperature every 15 minutes for a year. The information will be used to produce tree planting maps to help target resources to keep our rivers shaded and cool and to help protect fish from warming temperatures.
The Forth Rivers Trust and Marine Scotland Science are working in partnership to gather data on river temperatures on the rivers Forth, Teith and Eas Cobain. This is part of a Scotland wide temperature monitoring network that aims to help identify which rivers and areas will be most effected by the temperature increases expected as a result of climate change. In this way, we can see where the best places to plant trees are located to help shade and cool the water.
Twenty temperature loggers were installed throughout the rivers in January by the Trust’s new Assistant Biologists, Gary Brown and Jack Wooton. Once the loggers are installed, they have minimal impact on the river and are almost invisible.
Data will be manually downloaded in the summer and next winter and sent to Marine Scotland in Pitlochry where it will then be analysed and run through their special temperature prediction model. They will then be able to advise us where we should focus our tree planting resource and effort. This in turn will help us identify areas where we might best focus restoration measures to benefit fish productivity.
