Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-lqqdg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-12T01:16:11.439Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Water pollution: other aspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

By
Michael Hughes  and
Carl Sayer
Edited by
Norman Maclean
Norman Maclean
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
Get access

Summary

Summary

The UK is home to a diverse array of aquatic organisms. However, it is also densely populated and our fresh waters have been subjected to a barrage of pollution over the last 150 years. The most widespread problem in the UK is eutrophication. Increased nutrient supply to lakes and rivers has caused a reduction in biodiversity, poorer water quality and a loss of amenity value to society. Acid deposition of sulfur and nitrogen oxides from fossil-fuel burning has altered the biological and chemical balance of many of our upland lakes and rivers, with adverse impacts on acid-sensitive species. Some of these sites are showing signs of recovery as levels of acid deposition have declined. An equally pervasive problem, and certainly less well studied, is pollution from persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Legislation and an increased awareness of the potential hazards has helped to reduce pollution, nevertheless there are few routine monitoring activities for POPs in our fresh waters and recent ad hoc studies show that pollution is still occurring from sources within and outside the UK. Pollution from heavy metals has occurred across the UK, and whilst direct sources have been reduced, diffuse pollution from atmospheric deposition is still a problem, especially where mercury is concerned. For many of these pollution issues, lake sediment studies and biological and chemical monitoring programmes have been invaluable in providing baseline data with which to assess environmental change. […]

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Silent Summer
The State of Wildlife in Britain and Ireland
 , pp. 141 - 155
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Battarbee, R.W., Thrush, B.A., Clymo, R.S. et al. (1984). Diatom analysis and the acidification of lakes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, 305(1124), 451–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennion, H.B., Fluin, J. and Simpson, G.L. (2004). Assessing eutrophication and reference conditions for Scottish freshwater lochs using subfossil diatoms. Journal of Applied Ecology, 41(1), 124–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckler, D.R., Cleveland, L., Little, E.E. and Brumbaugh, W.G. (1995). Survival, sublethal responses, and tissue residues of Atlantic salmon exposed to acidic pH and aluminium. Aquatic Toxicology, 31, 203–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, C. and Simpson, G.L. (2007). Freshwater Umbrella – The Effect of Nitrogen Deposition and Climate Change on Freshwaters in the UK. Report to DEFRA under contract CPEA17. London. ENSIS Ltd.Google Scholar
Gallego, E., Grimalt, J.O., Bartons, M. and Lopez, J.F. (2007). Altitudinal gradients of PBDEs and PCBs in fish from European high mountain lakes. Environmental Science Technology, 41(7), 2196–2202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gensemer, R.W. and Playle, R.C. (1999). The bioavailability and toxicity of aluminium in aquatic environments. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 29(4), 315–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, M., Hornby, D., Bennion, H.et al. (2004). The development of a GIS-based inventory of standing waters in England, Wales and Scotland together with a risk-based prioritisation protocol. Water, Air and Soil Pollution: Focus, 4(2–3), 73–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, G.J., Perry, M.C., and Prior, M.J.O. (2007). The Climate of the United Kingdom and Recent Trends, Exeter, Met Office, Hadley Centre.Google Scholar
Kelly, A. (2008). Lake Restoration Strategy for the Broads, Norwich, Broads Authority.Google Scholar
Logie, J.W. (1995). Effects of stream acidity on non-breeding dippers Cinclus cinclus in the south-central highlands of Scotland. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 5(1), 25–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, C.F. (2002). Biology of Freshwater Pollution, Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.Google Scholar
Monteith, D.T., Hildrew, A.G., Flower, R.J.et al. (2005). Biological responses to the chemical recovery of acidified fresh waters in the UK. Environmental Pollution, 137(1), 83–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicholson, F.A., Smith, S.R., Alloway, B.J., Carlton-Smith, C. and Chambers, B.J. (2003). An inventory of heavy metals inputs to agricultural soils in England and Wales. Science of the Total Environment, 311(1–3), 205–219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Omerod, S.J., Boilstone, M.A. and Tyler, S.J. (1985). Factors influencing the abundance of breeding Dippers Cinclus cinclus in the catchment of the River Wye, mid-Wales. Ibis, 127(3), 332–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sayer, C.D., Hoare, D., Simpson, G.L.et al. (2006). TBT causes regime shift in shallow lakes. Environmental Science and Technology, 40(17), 5269–5275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, R.A. (1852). On the air and rain of Manchester. Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Library and Philosophical Society, 2, 207–217.Google Scholar
Smol, J.P. (2008). Pollution of Lakes and Rivers: A Paleoenvironmental Perspective, Maldon, USA, Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Yang, H. and Rose, N.L. (2003). Distribution of mercury in six lake sediments cores across the UK. Science of the Total Environment, 304, 391–404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yang, H. and Rose, N. (2005). Trace element pollution records in some UK lake sediments, their history, influence factors and regional differences. Environment International, 31, 63–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×