Freshwater macroinvertebrates are a diverse group and play key ecological roles, including accelerating nutrient cycling, filtering water, controlling primary producers, and providing food for predators. Their differences in tolerances and short generation times manifest in rapid community responses to change. Macroinvertebrate community composition is an indicator of water quality. In Europe, efforts to improve water quality following environmental legislation, primarily starting in the 1980s, may have driven a recovery of macroinvertebrate communities. Towards understanding temporal and spatial variation of these organisms, we compiled the TREAM dataset (Time seRies of European freshwAter Macroinvertebrates), consisting of macroinvertebrate community time series from 1,816 river and stream sites (mean length of 19.2 years and 14.9 sampling years) of 22 European countries sampled between 1968 and 2020. In total, the data include >93 million sampled individuals of 2,648 taxa from 959 genera and 212 families. These data can be used to test questions ranging from identifying drivers of the population dynamics of specific taxa to assessing the success of legislative and management restoration efforts.

Agencia Vasca del Agua Vitoria Gasteiz 01013 Spain

APEM Ltd Riverview A17 The Embankment Business Park SK4 3GN Heaton Mersey Stockport UK

ARALEP Ecologie des Eaux Douces Villeurbanne 69603 France

Brain Capital Alliance San Francisco CA USA

Centre for Freshwater and Environmental Studies Dundalk Institute of Technology Dundalk A91 K584 Ireland

Conservation Ecology Center Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute Front Royal Virginia 22630 USA

Departamento de Medio Ambiente y Obras Hidráulicas Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa Donostia San Sebastián 20004 Spain

Department Community and Ecosystem Ecology Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries Berlin 12587 Germany

Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology Ghent University Ghent 9000 Belgium

Department of Aquatic Ecology Eawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology 8600 Dübendorf Switzerland

Department of Aquatic Ecosystems Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Sofia 1000 Bulgaria

Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala 75651 Sweden

Department of Biological Sciences University of Bergen Bergen 5006 Norway

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Brno 61137 Czech Republic

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences DISAT University of Milano Bicocca Milan 20126 Italy

Department of Ecology and Genetics University of Oulu Oulu 90014 Finland

Department of Ecology and Hydrology University of Murcia Murcia 30100 Spain

Department of Ecoscience Aarhus University 8000 Aarhus C Denmark

Department of Ecosystem Services German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Leipzig 04103 Germany

Department of Ecosystem Services Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research UFZ Leipzig 04318 Germany

Department of Environmental Planning and Technology University of Applied Sciences Trier Birkenfeld 55761 Germany

Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies University of Zurich 8057 Zürich Switzerland

Department of Hydrobiology University of Pécs Pécs 7624 Hungary

Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management Christian Albrechts University Kiel Institute for Natural Resource Conservation Kiel 24118 Germany

Department of Life Sciences University of Coimbra Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre ARNET Coimbra 3000 456 Portugal

Department of Plant Biology and Ecology University of the Basque Country Leioa 48940 Spain

Department of River Ecology and Conservation Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt Gelnhausen 63571 Germany

Department of Tisza River Research HUN REN Centre for Ecological Research Institute of Aquatic Ecology Debrecen 4026 Hungary

Department of Water Atmosphere and Environment Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management 1180 Vienna Austria

Department of Water Atmosphere and Environment Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna Austria

EDF Recherche et Développement Laboratoire National d'Hydraulique et Environnement Chatou 78401 France

Ekolur Asesoría Ambiental SLL Oiartzun 20180 Spain

Environment Agency Bristol UK

Environmental Research and Innovation department Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology Esch sur Alzette L 4362 Luxembourg

Estonian University of Life Sciences Chair of Hydrobiology and Fishery Centre for Limnology Elva vald 61117 Estonia

Eurac Research Institute for Alpine Environment Bolzano Bozen 39100 Italy

Faculty of Biology University of Duisburg Essen Essen 45141 Germany

FEHM Lab Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research CSIC Carrer de Jordi Girona 18 26 08034 Barcelona Spain

FEHM Lab University of Barcelona Barcelona 08028 Spain

Fisheries Ecosystems Advisory Services Marine Institute Newport F28PF65 Ireland

Flanders Environment Agency Aalst 9300 Belgium

HUN REN Balaton Limnological Research Institute 3 Klebelsberg Kuno H8237 Tihany Hungary

IHCantabria Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de la Universidad de Cantabria Santander 39011 Spain

IMPACT the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation Deakin University Geelong Victoria Australia

INRAE Aix Marseille Univ RECOVER Aix en Provence 13182 France

INRAE UR RiverLy Centre de Lyon Villeurbanne Villeurbanne F 69625 France

Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics University of Amsterdam Amsterdam 1098 XH Netherlands

Institute for Green Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh 15213 USA

Institute of Biodiversity Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena 07743 Germany

Institute of Biology University of Latvia Riga LV 1004 Latvia

Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology of Hydrobionts Nature Research Centre Akademijos Str 2 Vilnius 08412 Lithuania

LFI The Laboratory for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries NORCE Norwegian Research Centre Bergen 5838 Norway

Nature Solutions Unit Finnish Environment Institute Oulu 90014 Finland

Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Oslo Lillehammer Norway

Norwegian Institute for Water Research 2300 Copenhagen S Denmark

Oulanka Research Station University of Oulu Infrastructure Platform Kuusamo 93900 Finland

Research Center One Health Ruhr University Alliance Ruhr Universitätsstrasse 2 45141 Essen Germany

School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences Queen Mary University of London London E1 4NS UK

School of Natural Resources University of Nebraska Lincoln Lincoln NE USA

School of Science and Technology Nottingham Trent University Nottingham NG11 8NS UK

School of the Environment Yale University New Haven CT 06511 USA

South West University Neofit Rilski Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Department of Geography Ecology and Environment Protection Blagoevgrad Bulgaria

T G Masaryk Water Research Institute p r i Brno 61200 Czech Republic

University of Copenhagen Freshwater Biological section 2100 Copenhagen Denmark

University of Leeds School of Geography Leeds UK

University of Lyon Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 CNRS ENTPE UMR 5023 LEHNA F 69622 Villeurbanne France

Wageningen Environmental Research Wageningen University and Research Wageningen 6708 PB Netherlands

Water Development Department Ministry of Agriculture Rural Development and Environment Nicosia 1047 Cyprus

Water Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit Faculty of Technology University of Oulu 90014 Oulu Finland

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Time series of freshwater macroinvertebrate abundances and site characteristics of European streams and rivers