Data from spatial monitoring of water quality provided parameter sets for validation of catchment scale models. These have been used in a number of externally funded research projects including REFRESH.
REFRESH [1] is a research project in which James Hutton Institute scientists are working together with 25 European research partners as part of an FP7 European Union-funded initiative looking at adaptive strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change on European freshwater ecosystem.
This project aims to:
The flow pathways followed by water as it moves through the soil and across its surface are important in determining the hydrological and water quality characteristics of receiving surface and groundwater bodies. Understanding of the processes governing the movement of water is poor, because of the heterogeneity in physical properties of the land and difficulties in observing sub-surface behaviour. Tracers that are either added to the system or occur naturally within it, provide a means of monitoring the integrated response of a receiving water body and can improve understanding of both the sources and timescales of hydrological transport. Future studies will include investigation of the utility of measuring isotopes of nitrate in water (δ15N and δ18O) as a means of improving understanding of the sources of diffuse pollution.
Figure 1: Nitrate modelling Baseline model validation: 2004-06.
The overall goal of the Macronutrient Cycles [3] programme is to quantify the scales (magnitude and spatial/temporal variation) of N and P fluxes and nature of transformations through the catchment under a changing climate and perturbed C cycle.
Links:
[1] http://www.refresh.ucl.ac.uk/
[2] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/images/research/ebs/nitrate-modelling-fig1.jpg
[3] http://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/display/ltls/Home
[4] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/staff/leah-jackson-blake
[5] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/staff/rachel-helliwell