A team led by Professor Adrian Collins is embarking on a programme to detect the landscape scale efficacy of targeted advice and mitigation measures for sediment and organic wastes (slurries / manures) as part of phase 3 of Catchment Sensitive Farming. This work is funded by the Environment Agency.
Recent work by ADAS in the River Win priority area of the Frome CSF priority catchment has demonstrated the use of sediment sourcing approaches for detecting positive environmental outcomes in response to targeted advice and delivery for the mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA) by CSF.
Whilst the results for the River Win target area in the Frome priority catchment are extremely encouraging, new work under CSF phase 3 will be used to seek further evidence that a focus on repeat source apportionment provides a pragmatic basis for detecting change in response to targeted on-farm management in the short-term and at sub-catchment scale. This new work, will aim to make use of recent developments in source fingerprinting which now permit the combined inclusion of organic pollution associated with farm slurries and manures, alongside the more traditional focus on sediment, using a common data processing framework.
The new work will deliver cross sector source apportionment for sediment (losses from arable and pasture fields, damaged road verges, channel banks and STWs) and organic inputs (dissolved and particulate from farm slurries and manures, septic tanks/STWs, damaged road verges and in-stream vegetation), as a means of providing stakeholders with a balanced appraisal of the local problem. Detection of change in response to on-farm advice and mitigation using the new source apportionment framework has the flexibility to focus on individual, or suites, of measures, depending on catchment local delivery priorities.
The experimental design is founded on a comparison of paired control and manipulated sub-catchments, the collection of data on the magnitude of pollutant stress for integration with the repeat (pre- and post- targeted mitigation) source apportionment estimates and the undertaking of repeat farm surveys to confirm change in on-farm practice as a result of engagement with CSF. Study sites include target areas in the Rivers Frome, Axe and Exe CSF priority catchments.
For more information on this CSF phase 3 project, please contact the project lead Professor Adrian Collins on 01902 693404, adrian.collins@adas.co.uk, or Leasa Williams on 01249 758213, leasa.williams@adas.co.uk.