The Experiment

The Experiment

The Water Friendly Farming project covers an area of nearly 30Km2, including the headwaters of the Eye Brook and neighbouring Stonton Brook, and an adjacent catchment, the Barkby Brook, which is part of the Soar river basin. The Barkby Brook forms the ‘control’ for the experiment, with no changes in management, while we are currently introducing a range of measures in the Eye and Stonton catchments. In the past three years, comprehensive data have been gathered at the base of each of the three catchments, and at about 250 sites across the study area. These represent a valuable baseline against which to monitor future change in response to the measures being introduced. The aim of the project is to find out to what extent it is possible to move towards government targets for water quality by applying a range of measures at the landscape scale. Although research at Loddington and elsewhere provides evidence of the performance of individual measures, remarkably little is known about what can be achieved if they are applied together at the landscape scale.

 

Soil research at Loddington

 

What are we measuring?

We are gathering detailed data on stream flow, sediment, nutrients and pesticides at the base of each of the three catchments. This provides a reliable measure of the amount and quality of the water discharged from each of the three areas of farmland. We are also carrying out less intensive monitoring of water quality in each of the small tributaries in each catchment. Then, at about 250 sites across the study area, we are surveying the aquatic invertebrates and plants in ditches, ponds and streams. Some water quality data are also available for these sites. This provides exceptionally detailed information on the variation in water quality and ecology within each of the three catchments. For example the data highlights the importance of ponds for wetland plants, and the increase in sediment in the stream when it rains. Fish have also been surveyed across thirty sites.

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