Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, OXON, OX10 8BB, UK.
Sci Total Environ. 2011 Mar 15;409(8):1516-29. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.01.018. Epub 2011 Feb 5.
Information on a new observatory study of the water quality of two major river basins in northwestern England (the Ribble and Wyre) is presented. It covers upland, intermediate and lowland environments of contrasting pollution history with sufficient detail to examine transitional gradients. The upland rivers drain acidic soils subjected to long-term acidic deposition. Nonetheless, the acidic runoff from the soils is largely neutralised by high alkalinity groundwaters, although the rivers retain, perhaps as colloids, elements such as Al and Fe that are mobilised under acid conditions. The lowland rivers are contaminated and have variable water quality due to variable urban/industrial point and diffuse inputs reflecting local and regional differences in historic and contemporary sources. For most determinands, pollutant concentrations are not a major cause for concern although phosphate levels remain high. Set against earlier studies for other regions, there may be a general decline in pollutant levels and this is most clearly observed for boron where effluent inputs have declined significantly due to reductions in household products that are flushed down the drain. High concentrations of sodium and chloride occurred briefly after a severe cold spell due to flushing of road salts. A major inventory for water quality within rural, urban, industrial and agricultural typologies is provided within data summary attachments for over 50 water quality determinands. Within the next year, the full dataset will be made available from the CEH website. This, with ongoing monitoring, represents a platform for water quality studies across a wide range of catchment typologies pertinent to environmental management of clean and impacted systems within the UK. The study provides a base of research "from source to sea" including extensions to the estuary and open sea for a semi-confined basin, the Irish Sea, where there are many issues of pollution inputs and contamination.
本文介绍了一项针对英格兰西北部两个主要流域（里布尔河和怀尔河）水质的新观测研究。该研究涵盖了具有不同污染历史的高地、中游和低地环境，具有足够的细节来考察过渡梯度。高地河流的源头是酸性土壤，长期受到酸性沉降的影响。尽管如此，土壤中的酸性径流在很大程度上被高碱性地下水中和了，尽管河流可能会以胶体的形式保留那些在酸性条件下被释放的元素，如 Al 和 Fe。低地河流受到污染，水质因城市/工业点源和扩散源的变化而变化，反映了历史和当代来源的局部和区域差异。对于大多数测定物，污染物浓度并不是一个主要问题，尽管磷酸盐水平仍然很高。与其他地区的早期研究相比，污染物水平可能普遍下降，这在硼的情况中最为明显，由于家庭用品排放量的减少，这些用品被冲进了下水道，污水中的硼含量显著下降。由于道路盐的冲刷，在一次严重的严寒过后，钠和氯的浓度短暂升高。在数据摘要附件中，为农村、城市、工业和农业等多种类型的水质提供了超过 50 种水质测定物的主要库存。在未来一年，CEH 网站将提供完整的数据集。这与持续监测一起，为英国范围内清洁和受污染系统的环境管理提供了一个广泛流域类型水质研究的平台。该研究提供了一个从源头到海洋的研究基础，包括对一个半封闭流域，即爱尔兰海的河口和开阔海域的扩展，该海域存在许多污染输入和污染问题。
