A 50‐year record of nitrate concentrations in the Slapton Ley Catchment, Devon, United Kingdom

Slapton Ley, a coastal lake, is the largest natural body of fresh water in south‐west England. There was concern in the 1960s that the lake was becoming increasingly eutrophic. To quantify inputs of water, sediment and nutrients into the lake, Slapton Ley Field Centre initiated a programme of weekly...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHydrological processes Vol. 35; no. 1
Main Authors Burt, Tim P., Worrall, Fred, Howden, Nicholas J. K., Jarvie, Helen P., Pratt, Andrew, Hutchinson, Tom H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2021
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
Annual variations
Chemical properties
Chemicophysical properties
England
Eutrophic environments
Eutrophication
Fresh water
Freshwater
Influent streams
Influents
Inland water environment
Lake sediments
Lakes
Monitoring
Nitrates
Nutrients
Research projects
Rivers
sediments
Streams
surface water
Water quality
Watersheds
Weekly
United Kingdom > UK
England
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Summary:Slapton Ley, a coastal lake, is the largest natural body of fresh water in south‐west England. There was concern in the 1960s that the lake was becoming increasingly eutrophic. To quantify inputs of water, sediment and nutrients into the lake, Slapton Ley Field Centre initiated a programme of weekly water quality sampling in September 1970. Of all the chemical properties which have been measured over the decades, the nitrate record has been the subject of more research than any other. The weekly monitoring has been supplemented by research projects aimed at understanding aspects of processes and patterns of nitrate delivery to the stream network. Three aspects of the nitrate record are reviewed: short‐term process dynamics; the annual cycle of influent streams and the lake itself; and long‐term trends. In the first two decades of monitoring, there was increasing concern about a trend of rising nitrate concentrations, an issue in most lowland rivers in the United Kingdom at the time. In the 1990s, nitrate concentrations levelled off and then have fallen steadily in recent years. In relation to eutrophication, there are clear signs of improvement in the influent streams, but concerns remain about water quality in the lake itself.
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ISSN:0885-6087
1099-1085
DOI:10.1002/hyp.13955