Freshwater Quality Programme webinar: LTLS-FE project update

A presentation on project progress by members of the LTLS-FE team: Theo Jackson (Rothamsted), Will Perry (University of Cardiff), and Mark Rhodes Smith (UKCEH).

LTLS-FE is one of five projects within the NERC Freshwater Quality Programme and will be the first project to quantify the future impact of climate and socioeconomic change on freshwater biodiversity across the UK.

The £1.6 million LTLS-FE project will develop a model to make predictions about future chemical inputs, river quality and river biodiversity. Future scenarios will be based on a range of possible changes in society and climate.

By doing this, they aim to provide a range of UK-wide ‘projections’  river quality and biodiversity in the future which will help policy-makers and scientists to understand the main factors controlling the quality and health of rivers. This will help them to develop plans for adaptation, mitigation and detection of risks associated with future changes in river quality.

Data and models will be made available to everyone at the end of the project to provide other researchers with the possibility to add new chemicals as they emerge or apply the model to other parts of the world..

Led by Dr Victoria Bell and Dr Stephen Lofts, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, with partners Rothamsted Research, British Geological Survey and Cardiff University.