The dataset consists of occurrence data of the aquatic organism groups fish, macroinvertebrates and macrophytes that were sampled in the German federal state Hesse between 2005 and 2008. The sampling was conducted according to the protocols of the national monitoring programme for implementation of the Water Framework Directive. More information on this dataset can be found in the Freshwater Metadatabase - BFE_87 (http://www.freshwatermetadata.eu/metadb/bf_mdb_view.php?entryID=BFE_87).