Abstract Measures that prevent cattle access to watercourses are commonly implemented through agri-environment schemes, in an effort to address the objectives of the Water Framework Directive. Despite the widespread implementation, few studies have assessed the impact of cattle access to streams on aquatic macroinvertebrates. This study assessed the local-scale impact of cattle drinking points on water quality parameters (i.e. macroinvertebrate and water chemistry metrics) on 39 intensively-managed grassland farms in the south-east of Ireland. The results indicate that sites that were more than or equal to good quality upstream of cattle drinking points, were more susceptible to cattle access impacts than sites where upstream water quality was less than good. The European Court of Auditors (2011) recommended that there should be a higher rate of EU contribution for measures with higher environmental potential, in this instance, for cattle exclusion measures targeted to sites where background quality is more than or equal to good. Appropriate efforts should thus be made to incentivise farmers in good to high status sites to adopt cattle exclusion measures.

中文翻译：

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爱尔兰东南部河流中牛饮水点对水生大型无脊椎动物的影响

摘要 防止牛进入水道的措施通常通过农业环境计划实施，以努力实现水框架指令的目标。尽管广泛实施，但很少有研究评估牛进入溪流对水生大型无脊椎动物的影响。本研究评估了爱尔兰东南部 39 个集约化管理的草地农场的牛饮水点对水质参数（即大型无脊椎动物和水化学指标）的当地规模影响。结果表明，与上游水质较差的地点相比，牛饮水点上游质量高于或等于良好的地点更容易受到牛进入影响的影响。欧洲审计院 (2011) 建议欧盟应为具有更高环境潜力的措施提供更高的贡献率，在这种情况下，针对背景质量大于或等于良好的地点的牛排除措施。因此，应作出适当努力，以激励处于良好到高地位地点的农民采取牛群排除措施。