UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network (UK UWMN) site. The Afon Hafren lies in the Cambrian Mountains of mid-Wales and from its confluence with the Afon Hore forms the headwaters of the River Severn. The catchment area is 358 ha and rises from 355 m at the sampling station to 690 m at Blaenhafren. Stagnoodsols cover approximately 40% of the catchment and organic peaty soils comprise the remaining area. The underlying geology consists of Ordovician grits and Silurian mudstones and shales. Fifty percent of the catchment is planted with conifers, primarily Sitka and Norway spruce, and forms part of the larger Hafren Forest; planting took place primarily between 1948-1950 and 1963-1964. At the start of monitoring about 5% of the catchment consisted of recently felled forest. Since that time there has been steady harvesting and replanting of large areas continuing right up to the present day though this appears to have had little impact on stream water chemistry. Moorland grasses and Calluna occupy the remainder of the catchment and are utilised for rough grazing. Prior to afforestation the catchment was exploited as upland sheepwalk. Rainfall is c. 2500 mm annually. Some data are managed by UK ECN Data Centre. Note: The area is the size of the catchment. Note that Afon Hafren is within the Plynlimon Experimental Catchments (see http://data.lter-europe.net/deims/site/EXPEER-UK-02).

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General Characteristics, Purpose, History

Site Status:

existing

Year Site Established:

1988

Size :

358.00ha

Purpose of Site :

Originally part of a network monitoring the quality of acid waters in the UK. Now the purpose is to track changes in surface water quality and freshwater biodiversity across all upland regions of the UK, not only those sensitive to acid deposition. The aim is to monitor the separate and combined impacts of all principal pressures facing upland waters, including acid deposition, nutrient-N deposition, climate change, toxic substance contamination and land-use change.

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Geographic

Coordinates:

Latitude: 52.474900000000
Longitude: -3.704870000000

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Point coordinates [.shp]

Bounding Box [.shp]

Site Details

Ecosystem and Environmental Characteristics

Elevation Range FROM:

355.00msl

Elevation Range TO:

690.00msl

Elevation - Average:

522.00msl

Air Temperature: Average Annual:

6.40°C

Precipitation Annual :

2 500.00mm

Biome :

Fresh Water Rivers

GEO-BON Biome:

Fresh water rivers

Ecosystem and Land Use:

Rivers

Biogeographical Region:

Atlantic

Geology:

Ordovician grits and Silurian mudstones and shales.

Hydrology:

The altitude range is 335 m from the sampling station to the headwaters. The channel section utilised for biological sampling lies in a forest clearing and is circa 3.5 m wide comprising shallow rapids and a deep pool. The stream bed substrate consists largely of boulders, cobbles and pebbles.

Vegetation:

Fifty percent of the catchment is planted with conifers, primarily Sitka and Norway spruce, and forms part of the larger Hafren Forest; planting took place primarily between 1948-1950 and 1963-1964. At the start of monitoring about 5% of the catchment consisted of recently felled forest. Since that time there has been steady harvesting and replanting of large areas continuing right up to the present day though this appears to have had little impact on stream water chemistry. Moorland grasses and Calluna occupy the remainder of the catchment (all of which is a SSSI) and are utilised for rough grazing. Prior to afforestation the catchment was exploited as upland sheepwalk.

Soils:

Stagnopodsols cover approximately 40% of the catchment and organic peaty soils comprise the remaining area.

eLTER Parameters

eLTER Parameters:

Network Affiliation and Network Specific Information

Affiliation:

LTER
UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network
ICP Integrated Monitoring

LTER related

LTER Site Code:

LTER_EU_UK_070

LTER Site Classification/Category:

Extensive

Accreditation Status by LTER Member Network:

Accepted as potential LTER facility

Protection Status and Resource Management

Nat. protection

Management of Resources - Percent of Site:

75 - 100%

Management of Resources - Notes:

Forestry and sheep grazing in the catchment.

Design and Scale of Site

Site Type (Spatial Design):

Simple Site

Scale of Observation:

plot within catchment

Design of Observation:

only observation

Scale of Experiments:

not applicable

Design of Experiments:

no experimentation

Infrastructure

Infrastructure notes:

Accommodation in nearby villages

Accessible All Year :

Yes

All parts of Site Accessible:

Permanent Power Supply:

Infrastructure:

Data infrastructure › Data storage › Relational database

Operation

Operation Notes:

Chemistry sampled monthly. Biological measurements made annually

Permanent Operation:

Site Visit Interval:

Every 30 days

Data Management

General Data Policy:

The data provider must be offered co-authorship for publications using this dataset at least within the metadata description

Data Storage Location :

Central

Data services :

No data service implemented

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