Afon Hafren - United Kingdom

Basic Information
Site Name
Afon Hafren
Short name
UWMN_17
Country
United Kingdom
Web Address
Afon Hafren on UWMN
Site Manager
Don Monteith
Site Description
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 ...
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Relationships to other sites
This site belongs to:
Last modified
2023-07-28 11:07:03

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
1988
Observed properties
ecosystem parameterwater parameterchemical parameterbiological parameterdiversityindexfaunisticdiversityfloristicdiversityinorganicnutrientcontentplantspeciescompositionspeciesabundancespeciescompositionspecieslistspeciespresencespeciesrichnesschlorophyllcontentofwaterconductivitystageheightwateraciditywateralkalinitywaterlevelwaterqualitywatertemperaturewatertransparencyammoniumcontentdissolvednutrientdissolvedorganiccarboninwatersuspendedsolidstotalorganiccarbonchangeinpopulationsizeovertimenitrogencontent
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network✖ (UWMN_17)The affiliation of this site with "UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network" is not verified by the network on DEIMS-SDR.
Projects
ICP Integrated Monitoring
Photos
Plynlimon, Hafren
Plynlimon, Hafren
Geographic
1 km
3000 ft
View in site map
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 52.4749 Longitude: -3.70487

Size
ca. 358.00ha
Elevation (average)
522.00msl
Elevation (min)
355.00msl
Elevation (max)
690.00msl
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Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml]
Bounding Box [.shp] [.kml]
Boundaries [.shp] [.kml]
GEO-BON Biome
Fresh water rivers
Biome
Fresh Water Rivers
Ecosystem Type
Rivers
Biogeographical Region
Atlantic Bio-geographical Region
EUNIS habitat
Inland surface waters (C)
Inland surface waters (C) » Surface running waters (C2)
Air Temperature: Average Annual
6.40°C
Precipitation Annual
2500.00mm
Geology
Ordovician grits and Silurian mudstones and shales.
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.
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.
Site Type
Stationary land-based site
Design of Experimentation
no experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
not applicable
Design of Observation
only observation
Scale of Observation
plot within catchment
Permanent Power Supply
No
Equipment
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Relational database
Equipment notes
Accommodation in nearby villages
Accessible All Year
Yes
All parts of Site Accessible
No
Permanent Operation
No
Operation Notes
Chemistry sampled monthly. Biological measurements made annually
Site Visit Interval
30
General Data Policy
The data provider must be offered co-authorship for publications using this dataset at least within the metadata description
LTER Site Classification
Extensive
There is EURO-CORDEX climate scenario data available for this site:
Projected Near Surface Specific Humidity ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Precipitation ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Sea Level Pressure ChangeRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Surface Downwelling Shortwave RadiationRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Near-Surface Wind SpeedRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Daily Maximum Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85
Projected Daily Minimum Near-Surface Air TemperatureRCP26RCP45RCP85

You can also download the entire climate scenario dataset for this site from the EUDAT B2SHARE data store.