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Rural land use in England and Wales and the delivery to the adjacent seas of nitrogen, phosphorus and atrazine
Author(s) -
Evans R.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
soil use and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.709
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1475-2743
pISSN - 0266-0032
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-2743.2002.tb00251.x
Subject(s) - arable land , moorland , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , grassland , surface runoff , phosphorus , land use , drainage basin , ecology , geography , agriculture , biology , materials science , geotechnical engineering , cartography , engineering , metallurgy
. In an exploratory study land use in 27 catchments covering most of England and Wales was assessed (using the land use classification devised by the then Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, now a part of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) and related to loads and concentrations of total nitrogen, phosphorus (mainly as orthophosphate (Op)) and some pesticides in river flows reaching the surrounding seas in the years 1990–1993. There are good correlations between seven land use types and the concentrations of total nitrogen ( r =0.83) and Op ( r =0.73) entering the seas. The correlations for individual land use types are best for arable land: total nitrogen, r =0.77; Op, r =0.65; and are positive. However, except for the mixed arable and grassland, the relationships between the other five land use types (improved grassland, upland grassland, upland moorland, upland mixed, and afforested and upland) and contaminant concentrations are negative. If data from the Mersey catchment are discarded, on the grounds that contaminant concentrations in the river seem unduly high, correlations between land use and contaminant concentrations reaching the seas are improved for all land uses: total nitrogen, r =0.89; Op, r =0.83; and atrazine, r =0.78. Loads and concentrations of pollutants in rivers entering the sea could be used to validate models of losses from catchments. Models may need to take greater account of runoff and transport of soil particles than they do presently.