Forestry Impact on Upland Water Quality
Forestry Impact on Upland Water Quality (IH Report) by Colin Neal
English | July 1992 | ISBN: 0948540427 | 55 Pages | PDF | 3 MB
English | July 1992 | ISBN: 0948540427 | 55 Pages | PDF | 3 MB
Considerable evidence has been accumulated which shows that acidification of the UK upland environment has occurred. The first phase of soil acidification probably started up to ten thousand years ago with the development and subsequent loss of birch, hazel, alder and oak forests (Dimbleby, 1952; Taylor, 1974; Penrington, 1984). The deforestation occurred during Neolithic and Bronze Age times because of a deteriorating micro-climate (about 2700 years ago) and local deforestation by man (5000-3000 years ago and in some cases up to the present day). Consequently, thin acidic moorland soils developed and these are characteristic of much of the uplands today. In waterlogged areas, where reducing conditions ensured limited breakdown of organic matter and provided very acidic conditions, peat deposits accumulated. Set against this long-term change in the upland environment, further acidification has occurred during the past hundred years and this has had an adverse effect on upland ecology.