Abstract

The white-clawed crayfish has often been cited as a good bioindicator of water quality but its requirements in terms of water quality are still unclear. Austropotamobius pallipes in Ireland benefits from a lack of decapod competitors and from a ban on the importation of exotic crayfish species, thus a limited impact of the crayfish plague. This situation offers a suitable model to study the fundamental requirements of this species. A survey was carried out in eight catchments of the midlands to assess the distribution of A. pallipes in Ireland and to establish the range of water and habitat quality in which this species can be found. Few environmental or habitat characteristics (bank damage; tree cover) were found to predict crayfish presence and the catch per unit effort was found not to be related to any of the parameters measured. This does not support the idea of using the white-clawed crayfish as a bioindicator of eutrophication or organic pollution.

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