Skip to main content
Contact Us
Publications

Trends in surface water chemistry in afforested Welsh catchments

Jack Forster, Tom Nisbet

Lead Author: Samantha Broadmeadow

1060983 scaled
Home Publications Trends in surface water chemistry in afforested Welsh catchments

Analysis of 22 years of water chemistry data revealed trends indicative of recovery from acidification. Between-stream variability was analysed using Principal Components Analaysis, hierarchical clustering and redundancy analysis of the trend slopes. Changes in stream water chemistry indicate three clusters with no absolute distinction between moorland and forest streams. Rainfall, crop age, base cation concentration and forest cover were identified as key significant explanatory variables. Monitoring of water chemistry in ten forest and two moorland acid-sensitive catchments in upland Wales commenced in 1991.

 

 

Related research

Publications

Modelling the long-term response of stream water chemistry to atmospheric pollution and forestry practices in Galloway, SW Scotland

Report assessing the long term role of forestry in relation to the acidification and recovery of soil and surface water. It targets some of the most acid impacted head waters in the Galloway region of southwest Scotland, including three sub-catchments in the Black Water of Dee (Dargall Lane, Green Burn and Cuttie Shallow); Cardoon Burn […]

Publications

Managing forests in acid sensitive water catchments

Atmospheric pollution in the form of acid deposition has been dramatically reduced since international controls on emissions were introduced in the 1980s. However, acidification still affects acid-sensitive regions of the UK, damaging fisheries and causing adverse ecological changes in freshwaters. Forestry is known to influence the degree of acidification, principally due to the ability of […]