LTSER Zone Atelier du Bassin de la Moselle - Vosges Acidification Observatory - France - Pleinot

The Pleinot is a small headstream at the border between the Vosges and the Haute-Saône departments. It is the only of the Observatory headstreams which belongs to the large Rhône River watershed. It has been monitored since 2002 for water quality in terms of inorganics (main anions and cations, aluminium) and since 2011 for dissolved organic carbon (quantity and optical characteristics). The Pleinot River watershed (571 ha) is mostly composed of Paleozoic granite–gneiss (with biotite and amphibole), Buntsandstein sandstone (with muscovite and feldspar) and Quaternary glacial formations. The whole surface is mainly covered by mixed coniferous and deciduous forests (Picea abies, Abies alba, Fagus sylvatica, Acer pseudoplatanus, etc.) with mostly deciduous trees along the river. Recent attacks of coniferous stands by bark beetles have led to emergency clearcutting. The vegetation status is monitored via the NDVI, based on Sentinel-2 images.
On the monthly samples the following analyses are made: pH, conductivity, major anions and cations (Ca, Na, K and Mg), alcalinity, aluminium, iron, manganese, dissolved organic and inorganic carbon, total dissolved nitrogen, absorbance spectrum, synchronous fluorescence spectrum (gap = 50 nm).