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Research

• Negative impacts are still important -research continues

• Protecting the environment through best management practice - the Forests and Water guidelines now on the 5th edition

• Testing the efficacy of the guidelines is an important part of our research

• The longer term effects of forestry on the water environment

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Flanders Moss

• The importance of peatlandconservation and restoration is now well recognised.

• What are the effects of peatland restoration on drainage water chemistry?

• Risk of phosphate release (Cummins and Farrell, 2003)

• Quantify changes in nutrients and DOC following restoration.

• The westernmost catchment was felled in winter 2009/10. The easternmost catchment was felled between March 2011 to March 2013. The final northernmost catchment (control) is now being felled.

• More to comeAerial photograph of Flanders Moss showing sampling points.

The effects of bog restoration on drainage water chemistry

SRF – Water Quality at Sibster

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• SRF is expected to benefit water quality compared to an agricultural land cover due to lower chemical inputs and reduced soil disturbance but could impair soil and water quality.

• Nitrate and Total N concentrations have fallen following the initial removal of livestock.

• Increase in microbial numbers when livestock were returned to Sibster Farm site between Apr 2010 and Oct 2010. Numbers fall again following removal of livestock

The effects of SRF on water quality

Halladale experiment

• Initially driven by perceived threat of new planting (approx. 1000 ha) to local fishery - increased scavenging of atmospheric pollutants by forest canopies could lead to acidification.

• Research study undertaken by ITE, MLURI, FFL, HRPB and Forest Research in 1993/94

• Concluded that site was not significantly acidified and not at risk of acidification from the planned afforestation – planted in 1996.

• Continue to monitor effects of cultivation and efficacy of best practice measures and longer term growing effects.

Location

Site Catchment

area (ha)

Forest

planting

(ha)1

% of

catchment

UH 714 0.5 0.07

MH 1911 451.1 23.61

LH 3497 647.5 18.52

BB 235 74.4 31.66

BBET 56 5.8 10.36

AB 369 74.2 20.11

Table 1 Upper Halladale sub-catchments and planted areas (light green = 1996)

1 Data from National Forest InventoryCultivation and planting took place between Jan and May 1996

pH

Seasonal Kendall analysis until 2010 shows an increasing trend for pH at BBET (p<0.005)

Figure 1 Annual mean pH in the Upper Halladale catchments (left) and number of acid episodes (right)

ANC

Figure 2 Annual means (left) and monthly data for Single Mass Balance (SMB) ANC at the six Upper Halladale sites. The dashed horizontal indicates ANC 40, the new critical threshold of ANC for protecting salmonid fish (90% probability of survival of brown trout) based on annual mean chemistry; ANC 20 for high flow samples.

Seasonal Kendall analysis until 2010 shows an increasing trend for ANC at BBET (p<0.005)

Non-marine sulphate

Figure 3 Non-marine sulphate at the six Upper Halladale sites; negative values indicate sulphate retention

Total P

Figure 4 Total P (µg/L) in the sub-catchments relative to the Upper Halladale control (UH). Arrows point to fertiliser applications. Data for BB, BBET and AB run to April 2000.

Table 2 Mean values of Total P (µg/L) calculated on weekly data for each catchment.

UH MH LH BB BBET AB

Pre fertiliser 11.27 14.65 16.09 8.98 5.70 17.10

Post fertiliser (until 2000) 14.73 25.12 25.08 15.64 8.11 18.50

% increase 30.70 71.46 55.89 74.18 42.08 8.21

1996 12.96 19.88 20.75 10.78 7.50 18.45

1997 12.78 24.03 23.99 13.00 7.93 19.06

1998 14.37 28.25 28.94 13.13 6.12 19.28

1999 17.13 24.67 22.53 23.04 9.68 17.97

2000 15.62 19.11 20.43 11.15 7.70 12.56

Results

The results are still being interrogated but some of the key findings thus far:

- water quality remained high during site preparation with little or no adverse biological impacts in the short-term (4 years) after planting.

- key forestry measures: avoiding ploughing riparian and wetland areas, keeping clear of natural drainage lines, short plough furrow runs separated by narrow buffer strips, shallow ploughing and mounding of steeper slopes.

- no increase in acidification since planting and over 16 years of growth. However, the catchments are subject to acid episodes during heavy rainfall.

- pH and ANC show signs of increase in most recent data

- a decrease in non-marine sulphate with evidence of sulphate retention within the catchments –also noted in the 1993/94 preliminary study.

- phosphate concentrations increase following some of the fertiliser applications – the total amounts are relatively low but the results require further scrutiny.

- The river system is healthy in terms of biology with higher numbers of fish most sites compared to pre-planting levels.

- it appears that climatic effects, particularly extreme meteorological events, exert the greatest control on water chemistry in the Upper Halladale catchment.

The near future

• Existing studies at Flanders Moss, Sibster and Halladale

• Working with FES, FCS and industry to trial diffuse pollution measures

• PhD with UoE - Impacts of nitrogen deposition on the forest carbon and nitrogen cycle: to determine the effects of increased N deposition on N and C cycling in a temperate forest ecosystem, focusing on aquatic fluxes and the degree of N cycle closure

• Effectiveness of woodland buffers – work with SEPA and FCS to set up a monitoring study following on from the Tay and Scotland opportunity mapping work

The Scientist

The Scientist

“Whether his work is predominantly theoretical or experimental, he usually seems to know,

before his research project is even under way, all but the most intimate details of the result which that project will achieve. If the result is quickly forthcoming, well and good. If not, he

will struggle with his apparatus and his equations until, if at all possible, they yield

results that conform to the sort of pattern which he has foreseen from the start.”

The Function of Dogma in Scientific Research – Thomas Kuhn

Thank you