Weekly water quality monitoring data for the River Thames (UK) and its major tributaries (2009–2013): the Thames Initiative research platform

Abstract

Abstract. The River Thames and 15 of its major tributaries have been monitored at weekly intervals since March 2009. Monitored determinands include major nutrient fractions, anions, cations, metals, pH, alkalinity, and chlorophyll a and are linked to mean daily river flows at each site. This catchment-wide biogeochemical monitoring platform captures changes in the water quality of the Thames basin during a period of rapid change, related to increasing pressures (due to a rapidly growing human population, increasing water demand and climate change) and improvements in sewage treatment processes and agricultural practices. The platform provides the research community with a valuable data and modelling resource for furthering our understanding of pollution sources and dynamics, as well as interactions between water quality and aquatic ecology. Combining Thames Initiative data with previous (non-continuous) monitoring data sets from many common study sites, dating back to 1997, has shown that there have been major reductions in phosphorus concentrations at most sites, occurring at low river flow, and these are principally due to reduced loadings from sewage treatment works (STWs). This ongoing monitoring programme will provide the vital underpinning environmental data required to best manage this vital drinking water resource, which is key for the sustainability of the city of London and the wider UK economy. The Thames Initiative data set is freely available from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology's (CEH) Environmental Information Data Centre at https://doi.org/10.5285/e4c300b1-8bc3-4df2-b23a-e72e67eef2fd.

The Effect of Flooding and Drainage Duration on the Release of Trace Elements from Floodplain Soils

“…Concentrations of Zn found in the porewaters collected in this experiment were above English environmental standards for freshwater (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2015) and well above the defined ambient background concentration for the River Thames (2.5 µg L −1 ; Peters et al 2012). These concentrations of Zn were also an order of magnitude higher than concentrations found in the River Loddon by the present study (Table 1) and by Bowes et al (2018), even at the start of the experimental inundation of the soil cores. Similarly, concentrations of Cr and Ni were an order of magnitude higher in the porewater of flooded soil cores than in the water samples obtained from the River Loddon by the present study (Table 1).…”

“…The concentrations of various anions and cations (including Cu and Zn) in the river have been the subject of ongoing weekly monitoring, with results covering the period from 2009 to 2013, recently published by Bowes et al (2018). The highest concentrations of Cu and Zn were reported at sampling locations downstream of catchments with the highest sewage treatment works' population density, with mean Zn and Cu concentrations of 5.9 and 2.7 µg L −1 , respectively.…”

Contrasting community assembly processes structure lotic bacteria metacommunities along the river continuum

“…1, Supplementary Table 7). These sites form part of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology's Thames Initiative research platform (Bowes et al ., 2018). The selected study sites include three sites along the main channel of the upper and middle River Thames, and nine tributaries representing a wide range of the lotic ecosystem in terms of distance from source, flow, land use, sewage input and cover much of the basin above the tidal limit.…”

Biogeochemical and climate drivers of wetland phosphorus and nitrogen release: Implications for nutrient legacies and eutrophication risk

“…Samples were taken up to twice daily during the initial phase of nutrient release in August 2016. Water samples were analyzed according to detailed protocols (Bowes et al., 2018) outlined in the Supplemental Information.…”