Skip to main content

UK Freshwater Quality Programme Webinar - LTLS-FE Project Update

Category
Freshwater Quality Programme
Date
Date
Wednesday 3 July 2024, 12.00-1.00pm
Location
Zoom

Dr Vicky Bell, Dr Stephen Lofts and the project team working on Long-Term Large-Scale Freshwater Ecosystems (LTLS-FE) will present their progress so far.   This project is one of the five which make up the UK Freshwater Quality Programme.

To receive registration details for this event, please join our mailing list or email freshwater@leeds.ac.uk.

Analysis and future scenarios of long-term and large-scale freshwater quality and impacts

Historically, rivers across the United Kingdom have been subjected to a range of pressures arising from the input of chemicals and by-products, such as domestic wastewater, acid rain, nutrients and pesticides applied to soils, and other products such as medicines.

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.

This will be the first project to quantify the future impact of climate and  socioeconomic change on freshwater biodiversity across the UK.

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